Pierce tried to turn around as the burning hot pain lanced up his arm, but he couldn’t even register what he was seeing. A gigantic snake about the size of a car was eyeing him like the prey that he was. Pierce tried to scream and utter a single phrase but was paralyzed with fear. The pain from his arm spread throughout his body, but he hardened his heart; whatever was happening, he would adapt. The snake went for him again, and his flight response kicked in. He leaped off the path and rolled as the hill came up to meet him.
He hit the ground hard and was certain he had injured his leg and ribs in the fall. His whole body was now screaming at him as the bite and whatever it had possessed filtered through his system. He rolled out of the way as another strike from the snake came. It took all his strength to dodge, and his body hit the dirt again. Staggering to his feet, and almost losing his balance, he faced the snake.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Pierce said, “Well, this isn’t the way I thought I’d go out. Now you know almost every snake I’ve met has been a great reptile. You wouldn’t want to ruin that image I have for your kind, do you? Because frankly the way you've been treating me has not been kind. In fact I might even go as far as to say it has been unkind.”
The snake slowly wound its way to him, its thick body leaving a trail in the leaves on the ground as he pushed past them. It seemed diplomacy was lost on this cold blooded animal. He understood where Indiana Jones was coming from. This thing was terrifying. Fuck snakes. His distracted mind wasn’t keeping track of where he was walking and he stepped backwards and found nothing but empty air. Losing his balance, he slipped backward and saw the snake’s head peering over the edge, watching him fall.
“I will come back, you hear me, you scaly worm? This isn’t over even remotely.” Pierce said with as much confidence as he could muster even though he was falling to his death.
The ground below was rushing up to clamp him in its embrace. His thoughts were growing dimmer, his eyes closing as the pain and the overwhelming feeling of fear coursed through him, and his vision faded to blackness. He supposed that this was better than being snake food.
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Peirce gasped as he awoke. He was alive somehow, though he was sure that he’d died. He glanced around at his surroundings and winced as his body shook with the effort. It was a cave with shining mushrooms on the wall, and moss intermingled with dirt covering the ground. The mushrooms seemed strange, with an unnatural glow that gave off an unearthly aura. To be fair, he wasn't all-knowing when it came to mushrooms, but these were off. The mushrooms were bright blue with a seeping glow that left shadows dancing across the landscape of the cave. His Mother would’ve loved this; she loved all forms of nature, whether it be her garden or the forest, and she treated all nature equally. She would have loved these mushrooms, scampering about, taking notes on the shapes they formed, and comparing them to other species.
He sighed wistfully, “Hope I get to see you again, Mom.”
Giving a more concerted effort, he looked around, wincing with pain every minute or so. Suddenly, He spotted some movement from a secluded corner, and a giant bug about the size of a coconut with giant pincers waddled towards him.
Great, the giant legless reptile couldn’t finish him off, but now he had to deal with this freaky coconut beetle. He was missing his classroom, and the stale atmosphere of hormonal teenagers seemed like a wistful dream. He struggled to a standing position, wincing with every bit of forced motion. Seeing his movement, the beetle scuttled towards him faster, its pincers clamping menacingly. Pierce stumbled to one side as it scampered towards him. Grabbing a rock, Pierce lifted it and dropped it immediately. Cursing, he picked it up again, lifted it over his head, and dropped it soundly on its carapace. The rock made a crunching sound, and the beetle squealed in pain. Lifting his foot, Pierce readied to crush the gargantuan pest once and for all when then the beetle launched a fucking fireball the size of a baseball out of its back at Pierce. Unable to even vaguely react, Pierce gets hit in the same arm where the snake bit him.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Pierce yells in pain.
Frantically batting at his arm, where the sleeve of his flannel had caught on fire, he gives a cursory glance at his arm. Seeing welts sprouting up where the baseball of flame made contact with his skin, he curses. Severely questioning everything that has ever occurred during his life to get him here, he turns to the beetle with a vengeance in his veins. He limped toward it, which was not very fast, but it looked like that fireball had taken a good amount of its energy out of it. As he approached, the beetle weakly tried to scuttle away from him and his bloodied boot, but Pierce had just enough left in the tank to stomp with all his might. The beetle’s carapace collapsed under the force. Even after that, it still emitted some embers from under his boot, but it was a pitiful effort, and it lay finally still. No longer in danger, Pierce let out all his frustration and anger as he yelled in triumph.
That seemed to deliver the final blow to his waking mind because the adrenaline coursing through him left him all at once, and he collapsed to the ground yet again.
Pierce had a pounding headache as he opened his eyes. It felt like he hit every muscle in the gym all at once and decided to do a 5-mile run afterward. Groaning inwardly, he slowly raised himself to a sitting position. He blinked rapidly, and his vision cleared. He then saw what looked like a blue screen in his vision.
Welcome to the Multiverse
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
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What. The. Fuck. Pierce thought he had lost it. What is this video game screen in his vision? He tried to bat it away, punching through it, but nothing. Then, he wished it was gone, and it disappeared to a corner of his vision, nothing but a blinking icon. Pierce wanted to cry. This was insane; this felt like a terrible, really drawn-out joke. Laughing a little manically, he pulled himself together and tried summoning the screen back to his vision. It worked, and he was presented with the same message but with three additional lines below it.
Welcome to the Multiverse
You are the first of your kind to be inducted and have been granted the title of Forerunner.
As you have not become inducted via a tutorial, you have been granted additional boons for your struggle to become a strong forerunner.
That screen then disappeared, and another took its place.
Congratulations, you have killed a mana-infused creature; seeing as you were not an inducted human when you performed this action, you have gained double XP and double loot.
You have leveled up 2 times.
Would you like to loot the corpse?
Y/N
He felt he needed more information regarding all the hallucination messages flashing across his vision; he just mentally selected yes.
You have looted the corpse of Elemental Beetle (Fire) lv.1
You have gained 2 Mandibles and 4 Mana Stones (lesser)
A small pile of things appeared at his feet, including four blue gems and two of what looked like the beetle’s mandibles. At the exact moment, the items appeared, and the body disappeared in a dissolving cloud of pixels. Pierce looked down and picked up one of the crystals. To his surprise, a small text bubble appeared describing the item.
This Mana Stone possesses lesser mana storage. This stone can be used to refill one’s mana pool or as an ingredient in a profession. Current capacity 50/50 mana
Mana? Does this mean there is magic now? Pierce massaged his temples and saw the icon flashing frantically at the corner of his vision. He mentally clicked on this one as well, hoping for good news?
New Title Gained: Forerunner. You have stepped up as one of the select few to represent your planet. Will you strive for glory or fall in pursuit of your success? Be warned, your path will be a challenging one.
You gain +2 stats per stat per level and +2 free stats per level. This title will scale up after you reach a certain milestone level.
New Title Gained: Hitting Above Your Weight. You have killed a mana-infused creature without being inducted.
You will gain double experience and loot if you kill a monster five levels higher than yourself.
Because you encountered a mana-infused creature before the start of the system tutorial, you were teleported to a training realm early. You will leave once the tutorial near where you departed from begins. Time till tutorial: 59 days, 21 hours, and 22 minutes
Status Page:
Name: Pierce Adams Race: Human(Basic) Gender: Male
Lvl:3 Profession: N/A
Titles: Forerunner, Hitting Above Your Weight
Skills: N/A
Stats:
Strength: 5(+5) Dexterity:6(+5) Charisma:4(+5) Constitution:3(+5) Intelligence:6(+5) Wisdom:4(+5)
You have still not undergone induction. Since you have absorbed mana from a mana-infused Creature, would you like to undergo induction now?
Y/N
Pierce leaned against the cave wall and slowly slid down it. All that had happened was processing slowly through his mind. He accepted the prompt talking about his induction and felt a warmth spread through his body. The pleasant warmth suddenly turned to spikes of pain coursing through all different parts of his body, and then it finally coalesced into the center of his core and burst, spreading new life through his body. After all of the rigors and already exhausted body and mind, that final burst was too much, and he passed out again.
What seemed like only minutes later, he awoke to the smell of a foul stench that rivaled that of every rotted thing he had ever smelled sitting out in the sun for a month. Immediately, he sat up and heaved the minor remains of what he had left in his stomach. He realized he had laid in whatever the black substance was and was disgusted beyond measure. Where did this substance come from? Was it from him? Had he expelled this venom symbiote upon induction?
Not wanting to stay in the room filled with the stench any longer, he scooped up the mandibles and the mana stones and limped out of the cave. Holding his nose to avoid retching again, as the gunk was still caked onto him, he limped deeper into the cave system. He entered one cave that looked like a terrarium under the earth, with a waterfall flowing over the edge of a cliff that reached nearly a hundred-foot high ceiling. The trees here looked strange, though. Their bark was stark white with what looked like gems sprouting from them in every direction, giving the impression of leaves. The shrubbery, in contrast, was dark blue, with what looked like berries made of crystal hanging off some of them. The grass looked normal enough, though, which was a relief to his shattered sense of reality.
Forcing each step, he finally came upon a river and bent to partake in the cleansing ambrosia that was the fresh, coursing water. Pierce stripped off and hobbled into the freezing water, scrubbing vigorously at his battered and bruised body. Through this scrubbing, he discovered that even though he was injured, he was not nearly as injured as before he had accepted the induction. He had grown more defined in every aspect, especially his physical state. Muscles were present that he had not noticed before, and his thinking felt more explicit and defined. As impaired as he was, he knew instinctively that his body would be better than it ever had been before.