During the Child Stage, Gi had found himself in a dark, wet membrane that he’d been forced to crawl his way out of. In the Adolescent Stage, his consciousness returned as a bright blinding light that overrode every sense that he had. The light seemed to come from everywhere including inside him, but it eventually started to wane. His sense of touch returned first. He stood on a firm surface and reaching out his paw confirmed that he was in some type of enclosure. His hearing came next.
“…gage the Intelligence test.”
“I mean, he’s wearing clothes.”
“…” The other voice paused. “Good enough for me.”
Two blurry shapes came into view that seemed to be standing just outside of a glass tube that he found himself in. He looked left and right as his vision solidified and there seemed to be dozens of pods in this room. A komodo dragon looking lizard appeared in one as the two other masked humanoids attempted to communicate with it. Eventually, it disappeared again in a flash of light.
“Hey, dipshit,” the second voice caught his attention again and Gi turned back to the two outside of his own glass. From their hands, they seemed to be some type of lizard based humanoid, but both of them wore masks that covered their snouts. These were white masks that had rough streaks of red that ran along them ending in fangs directly on the snout. The irritable masked one snapped their fingers. “Oi, stop staring and listen. If you attack us, we will kill you. Do you understand?”
Gi blinked. What was going on? This was nothing like the Playground.
The irritable one sighed and spoke slower. “Nod if you understand that if you attack us, you will die.”
Deciding to play along for now, Gi nodded. At a gesture from the irritable one, the other masked lizard threw a switch at a nearby console that Gi had missed. The tube he’d been in lifted up, releasing him. He stepped out and onto a rough cavernous floor. His eyes darted back to the ceiling and floor, seeing all the stalagmites and stalactites that hung there. This futuristic looking lab was housed in a cave?
The irritable one sighed again. “Start the spiel.”
The other masked lizard pulled out what looked suspiciously like a clipboard and stepped forward, reading in a monotone voice. “Congratulations on completing the Child Stage and stepping into the world at large. You’ve arrived in the Kingdom of Shadow and Flames ruled over by Queen Siht, the malevolent, with the blessing of the First One. As members of the First One’s Faithful, we are obligated to inform all newly spawned intelligent monsters about the world in which they find themselves."
The Faithful flipped over a page in the clipboard and checked to make sure that Gi hadn’t left or anything. For Gi, his emotions were no longer muted as they were when selecting his end of Stage rewards, but his instincts also felt lacking compared to the other stages. He felt dull and confused and somewhat helpless, unable to do anything but listen in this strange environment.
“Right. As the First One, cursed be his name, is the progenitor of all monsters. He demands that conflict and slaughter be carried out. In this kingdom, that means joining the war between Igna and Myshk.” Without warning, the irritable Faithful pressed what looked like a cattle prod directly into his chest.
As soon as it touched him, it seared into him with a pain that was far worse than the rampant Eldritch energies had been back in the forest. Trying to scream, Gi choked and then collapsed, twitching against the ground. The other Faithful simply continued reading their sentence.
“This brand ensures that you will join the war sometime in the next five years. The First One in his benevolent malevolence has no need for those who refuse conflict, but has guaranteed that you will have time to strengthen yourself before being churned into the machine of war. Please go to the Fort, that’s the third tier, to enlist.”
Gi’s fingers clutched at his chest where the prod had branded him and he noticed a few things. A strange rune had been embedded in his flesh replacing a chunk of the scars that he’d gotten from the Eldritch energies powering him up. As that pain was quickly fading, he realized that while his arm and the scars hadn't healed, all the other wounds he accumulated during that last fight were no longer there. No more scrapes or burns or cuts from the tentacles.
The reading Faithful looked down his clipboard at Gi still on the floor. “Are you a Progenitor?”
For a moment, he wondered what the hell he was talking about, but then he remembered from choosing to create a Subgenitor that it had described a Progenitor as well and implied that was him. He was the birth of a new species of gang otter. “Y-yes,” Gi managed before rising to his feet.
“Great.” The Faithful flipped a few more pages until they found the relevant passage. “All Progenitors are required to meet with the Fort Commander and register their clans within the city.”
“W-what city is this?” Gi asked.
The irritable Faithful rolled their eyes still visible from behind their mask. “The city’s Igna. It’s ruled by Queen Siht. You’re in the way so fuck off.” With that last sentence, the Faithful who was only a little taller than he was picked him up with both hands, walked him over to an entrance in the cavern and tossed him into the opening. “Just head right and up and you’ll see the Fort.”
Dusting himself off, Gi followed a curving tunnel towards what he assumed was outside due to the fresh air that he could smell. Part of him was still stunned by how easily the Faithful had tossed him out. It had been a casual strength that was easily as strong as the Eldritch Leader in the Playground. When they’d threatened to kill him, that had been a simple truth and not some empty threat.
Gi followed the tunnel until it opened up into a wide street that was made of the same cavernous floor as had been in the spawning lab, but this was worn smooth by the hundreds of monsters that walked its streets. Like in Hillin’s compound, humanoid monsters were over represented in this city, but giant beasts were also present. One nearby appeared to be a giant wolf at least twice Gi’s height that had a goblin chained to its front paw. From the deference provided by the goblin, it didn’t seem that the wolf was the prisoner.
As Gi watched, the constant stream of monsters never seemed to end. Some went towards his right that had a slight curve upward while others went left and down. Also somewhat startling for him is that the street had what appeared to be dwellings of some sort. They looked like a round beehive with holes in each section along the edge of the street furthest from Gi. Each of them had a red curtain covering the holes. Careful not to jostle anyone, he stepped across the street in a gap between the strange dwellings and found himself looking out into a giant river.
He was on a mountain that was situated along that great river. It wound around the mountain on this side before continuing to cut across the land. On sections of the mountains below, he could see even broader tiers with thousands and thousands more monsters with the various buildings becoming more and more diverse. Random splashes of colors and various tents the next tier down reminded Gi of some type of fair.
Looking up, the sky-ocean was there just like it had been in the Playground, but if he looked into the misted area across the river. The sky ocean seemed to be covered by a thick moss that hung down in great plumes into the land beyond. Compared to the rocky barren mountain of Igna, that land seemed to be overwhelmed by greenery much of which all seemed to be the same moss that covered the sky.
What truly caught his attention though was the vast number of draconic winged shapes in the air seemingly disappearing into tiers above or sometimes descending down into the tiers below. The reason the small swarm of fliers caught his attention though was because they were almost all Fighting Drakes as he’d seen in the Playground. Was this perhaps their city?
Feeling overwhelmed, Gi wondered what he should be doing and turned to the system to help. As though the messages had been waiting for his attention, several popped up.
Successfully spawned in Igna (D-AZ53, U-S222, G-TR56, SS-LP98, Planet - Pangaea, Region - Kingdom of Shadow and Flames)
Adolescent stage begun. Stage 3 of 9.
Goal: Complete the base Foundational tasks as well as the task of Power.
Tasks:
Foundational Event - Find and survive a Unique opportunity
Foundational Belief - Expand your Focus into a Belief
Foundational Strength - Defeat your hated rival
Foundational Territory - Found a Home
Power - Complete a Dungeon run.
“Even more tasks than before,” Gi said. It didn’t help with his feelings of being overwhelmed. He took a deep breath. Instead of collapsing back into those feelings of inadequacy, first he needed information. Info about the city, Info about the tasks, and maybe someone that could help him understand his class better. The only lead he had though was the fort commander so he supposed that’s where he’d head first.
As he turned to head up, a small buzzing sound caught his attention. "Boss!" A dragonfly about the size of his paw landed on his shoulder and if it wasn't for the fact that Gi only knew the one dragonfly, he'd have been very confused about who this was.
"Poe? You're so small!"
Poe seemed to shrug. "This is just how I popped out."
Having Poe back with him provided him a sense of grounding that he desperately needed. As small as his family was, they needed him so he'd have to figure this place out. A snarl snapped Gi's head back towards the street and Gi watched as the giant wolf he'd seen earlier snatched up a small ogre into his jaws. Blood spurted out from his fangs in a shower that fell down to the street, but other than avoiding the sudden shower of blood, no one else took any actions against the wolf monster. Not understanding the rules here, Gi immediately started walking up the mountain and avoided getting too close to any of the scarier looking monsters.
As the path curved and they got further up the mountain, the number of monsters surrounding them stemmed somewhat, but not completely as the Fort finally came into view. Rather than some alien looking hive like the other dwellings, the Fort was a fully walled castle shoved onto the side of the mountain. It used bricks that were carved out of the same stone as the rest of the mountain making it looks almost as if the mountain had simply grown that way. The only parts that really stuck out were the braziers that dotted its crenellations spewing smoke into the sky and the wooden gate that was half open.
Gi walked up to the wooden gate where a handful of goblins waited. One of them, who was a little larger than Gi with blue skin and large ears, halted them from going through the gate. "What's your purpose at the Fort?"
"I'm a Progenitor that's just spawned."
The blue goblin gave him a once over, looking irritated for some reason. "You aquatic?"
"Yes?" At Gi's response, the goblin gave an accepting nod before thumbing back over his shoulder. Gi assumed that meant he could pass since neither the blue goblin nor any of the other more traditional ones paid him any mind afterwards. Once inside the Fort, it appeared that it was mostly empty of buildings inside. Instead, it consisted of a wide open grounds that was set aside for fighting. Gi couldn't call it sparring since one of the pair of goblins he watched drew blood with their claws.
A large, long building stood off to the left that had open curtains revealing lines of beds inside. A barracks, Gi thought, dismissing it as his destination because another much smaller building that matched the curved alien looking hives from outside except it had a larger curtain in the front caught his eye. He darted across the grounds before ducking inside and stopped.
Dominating almost the entire building was a giant... beast of some sort. It had the body of a large black cat like a panther the size of a small car. Spotted wings like those of a giant owl were folded against its back. Strangest of all, a human face stared at him from its front around a feathery mane which had two dark red horns jutting out from the top. Its gaze petrified Gi, stopping him dead in his tracks. That pause may have continued forever but a grumpy voice to the side disrupted it, drawing Gi's eyes to a goblin with an unusually large head wearing a monocle.
"What brings you to the office of Captain Mesano? Are you here to enlist?"
Gi coughed, rubbing at the brand on his chest. "Uh, no. No. I was told that Progenitors should see the commander of the Fort."
"Ah, a Progenitor, please hold." Gi realized that both the Captain and his assistant were sitting behind desks though the Captains was much larger. The assistant reached into a low drawer and pulled out a small coin pouch. He tossed it over to Gi. “20 copper. It’s a gift from Captain Mesano to new Progenitors to help them get started in the city.”
“Oh… thank you,” Gi said dully. He grabbed the bag and placed it into his robe, next to the other pouch that he’d gotten from the Dungeon. That one contained ten gold coins. He honestly didn’t know the difference. “Is this worth a lot? Do monsters use… currency?”
Captain Mesano who’d simply been staring at him since he arrived, finally spoke up. The strange mixed up creature had a deep bass voice that reminded Gi of the low hum of heated air through iron pipes. “Good question,” he said with a throaty chuckle. “Intelligence is always needed in Siht’s army. Let me take over from here, Writ.”
The goblin bowed low, his giant head tapping the desk in front of him. With one paw, the Captain pushed his desk out of the way so there was a clear path between Gi and him. Gi, unexpectedly, took a step back. Why did he feel so afraid? Why did he feel so… different than he had before? He knew that his failure in the last stage was weighing on him, but this was different. He didn’t like how he was feeling.
“The reason that I ask Progenitors here is that I’d like to recruit your entire clan to the war efforts. The brands of the First One ensures that most only come at the last second and only for as long as they have to. I want more than that. I want monsters that are committed to our cause and willing to give their all.” Clearly passionate, the monster bristled, his face lighting up in a way that was disturbing on his strange features. He continued.
“Most think the army will harm their foundations, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Being surrounded by war in a land as different from this one as it could be? Strong foes and unique opportunities are everywhere. Would you prefer to just pick the bones clean of what the monsters nearby already fight over?”
“No?” Gi added helpfully.
“Of course not! This is an opportunity to build a firm foundation for your new clan. A foundation that is forged through conflict. So… what say you? Will you join up?”
“I…” It honestly did sound good, but Gi didn’t really have a frame of reference. Was his clan the same as his species? What did the Captain mean when he talked about a foundation? Why did he feel so scared of fighting? Honestly, he just didn’t know enough. “I need some time to think about it. For my clan.”
He huffed and a burst of hot breath shook Gi’s fur. Almost pouting, he slid his desk back and looked back down at some document that was there. With the Captain’s clear dismissal, Writ took back over. “That copper should be enough for a night in the Commons. The Captain’s offer remains open. We prefer people that are passionate about the cause, but we also take those that are desperate. Remember this gift.”
With that, Writ returned to some document and he was clearly dismissed. Before he could step out, the blue goblin that had been standing guard at the front burst into the room. He barely glanced at Gi instead turning to Writ. “Shifts over. I need my pay.”
Writ rolled his eyes. “Patience, Jalx.” He started rummaging around in his desk drawer again. Gi didn’t stick around as clearly he wasn’t needed anymore. Keeping money just laying around in a desk seemed foolish though. As far as he could tell, there were no laws here. No one had come to punish the wolf for devouring another monster. A city of might makes right.
Gi left the fort and a new set of guards had taken over, though they didn’t pay any attention to a monster leaving the Fort. Unfortunately, they also didn’t seem to care about the trio of monsters waiting for him at the gates.