Chpt. 1) The Outline Said This Would Happen
“The outline said this would happen,” Berry said as he looked at you, sheathing his sword and putting his shield away, “It said I would have to talk to you all and explain some shit about me and this world you’re walking into.”
“Mother fucker! Let me at him!” Wardf yelled from her suit of armor, which was stuck in the mud.
Berry took a quick glance at her and walked away hurriedly, “I’d rather not be around when she gets out of there, and I still need to explain things to yah.” He then stepped behind the wyvern and sat down on one of its feet, using it as a chair. “All righty then, first, let’s start with me. You probably can’t tell, but I have an Australian accent, as you would put it, and in case it wasn’t clear, I’m handsome as fuck,” he said, rubbing his stubbled chin. Chuckling, he continued, “But let’s keep it moving, yeah? We use a system that gives us power through stats that we can increase whenever we need. It’s called the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system. Ha! My mum always said I was special, but I don’t think that’s what she meant. Anyway, I’ll show you my stats, but I can’t show you the others’. Just give me a minute.” He blinked a few times, and his stat screen appeared in his eyes again. Then he waved his hand to flip the screen and show you what he sees.
Berry Yeprr: Lvl 13
HP: 745/840
MP: 400/440
STM: 66/166
HPR: 3HP / 4 Min 40 Sec
MPR: 3.8MP / Min
STMR: 78STM / Min
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
STR: -83
PER: -92
END: -84
CHR: -93
INT: -88
AGI: -78
LCK: -89
EXP: 24,275 / 26,749
ABP: 36pt
Deaths: 13
After a minute of letting you read the stats, Berry nods, “Yep, that’s right, those are negative stats, and that’s not what most people want in their stat sheets. But I benefit greatly from those kinds of stats, so I doubled down on them, and now I’m fucking amazing!”
“Berry! Would you be so kind as to help us dig Wardf out of the mud?!” Gomne asked from where Wardf was still stuck in the mud.
Berry called over his shoulder, “Not right now! Maybe later!”
“If you don’t help me, get out! I’ll kill you with my bare hands!” Wardf threatened, still stuck.
“That’s not convincing!” Berry called back, then turned back to you, “Anyway, what else do I need to talk about?” Berry asked, looking to his right as though he was reading something, “‘Talk about more general information.’ Oh, okay then, umm … well, the kingdom that rules the world is called the Kingdom of Gragora. The world itself is sort of a series of large island continents we call Orcia. I’ll show you a map later. Right now, we are just outside the city of Baram, which is located in the province of Shunarg, and it took us about a week to get to this point from where we first started.
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“As for how long days, weeks, months, and years are, it is a little bit different from your time lengths. A day is twenty for of your hours, a week is seven days, but a month is four weeks on average, and a year is equal to three of your years, one-thousand ninety-five days giving us eighteen and a quarter months. Every three months, there’s an extra day, with the last month of the year having two extra days. And I think that’s all I need to talk about for now. If you want to learn how everybody met and so on, just wait. It’ll all be revealed later. Now, what does the outline say will happen next? Huh? Poison wyvern?!”
THUNK! Berry winced and yelped as a helmet impacted the back of his head, followed by a little gnome wielding a Warhammer three times her size. She wore a simple leather coat, brown tunic and pants, and a green and pink bracelet on her right wrist. She had messy brown hair, brown shops on the sides of her face, and a splattering of freckles on her nose under her green eyes. She slammed her hammer down, and Berry rolled out of the away.
The hammer hit the muddy ground with enough force to create a small crater. Wardf glared at Berry and yelled, “NO BODY CALLS ME SHORT!!”
“Oh, so that’s what you look like, Wardf!” Berry exclaimed excitedly, “I thought you’d be taller.”
“GRRR!” Wardf growled like a wild animal, and Berry felt his Strength and Agility double.
“Oooh, was that intimidation!? I love that skill!” Berry laughed. Wardf swung her hammer again, and Berry caught it with one hand. Wardf blanched and visibly paled. “With the minus five Strength from Christy’s spell, plus your rage adding minus twenty-five, and your intimidation multiplying it by two, I now have two hundred and twenty-six Strength for the next thirty seconds. So, if I were you, I’d calm down a bit.”
Wardf took a long, deep breath and nodded, pulling her hammer back. She looked at it curiously and clenched and unclenched her free hand, “Why is this happening? How is this happening? I should’ve had negative strength during that battle, but instead, I have,” she paused a moment and looked at her stats, “Plus five Strength! How is that happening?”
Berry chuckled, “That’s because of me!” he said proudly.
“What do you mean it’s because of you?” Gomne asked, raising an eyebrow.
Berry turned his full attention to Gomne and said, “I said exactly what I said; it’s because of my sheer awesomeness that our abilities are working so well!”
“Could you elaborate?” Wardf asked, sounding more than a little annoyed.
“I could,” Berry confirmed, not elaborating.
After a moment of Gomne and Wardf waiting for a response, Christy rubbed her temples and groaned, “You asked the wrong question. Or rather asked the question wrong.”
Wardf looked at her angrily and said, “Well then, you ask the damn question and get us some fucking answers!”
Christy glared back at her and rolled her eyes, “Berry, please explain your super awesome ability to everyone. Ugh, I can’t believe you always have me ask the question that way.” Christy asked in an over-exaggerated, sarcastic voice.
Berry laughed, “HA! Well, if you don’t ask it that way, no one will! And I wouldn’t be able to flaunt how awesome I am! Okay, here’s what my ability does and its limitations.” He said, waving everyone closer, “My ability is – Uh oh.”
“Uh oh? What’s that ability?” Gomne asked innocently as everyone got closer to hear Berry’s explanation.
“No! Uh oh!” Berry exclaimed and pointed up at a circling shadow far overhead that dove toward them at tremendous speed before opening its wings and landing on the ground with a loud boom that knocked everyone to the ground. The massive form of a female poison wyvern stood over the party, its acidic green scales glowing with predatory anger.
Christy cursed and said, “It’s a level twenty-three poison wyvern! We need to move! Now!”
Berry roared and pulled his sword and shield from his belt, charging forward with all his strength. “DIE, YOU DAMN LIZARD!” he screamed, and the wyvern returned the roar as it snapped at him with its massive jaw. He dodged to the left, and the wyvern closed its mouth around his leg and took to the sky once more, quickly disappearing over the horizon to the northeast.
Christy sighed and cursed under her breath, “Why does this always happen? And at the worst possible times, too.” She looked to Gomne and Wardf as they stood up and looked at her in panic.
“What do we do?” Gomne asked, panic in his voice.
“We do nothing and go back to the guild to update them on the wyvern! Berry’s already dead anyways,” Wardf answered angrily as she pulled her armor out of the mud with a single hand.
“Wardf! How could you give up on our new party so quickly!” Gomne admonished her as she climbed into her armor and sealed it up.
“I’m not risking my life for a dead man we hardly know! And we aren’t in a party!”
“No, he’s not dead yet,” Christy said with a heavy sigh, interrupting Wardf, “but she’s right we should report this to the guild, and we aren’t officially a party.” A wicked smile split Christy’s face as she flicked her wrist and summoned a magical contract and quill, “But why don’t we rectify that while we head back to town?”
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