Shawn woke up to someone pounding on his door. “What is it,” Shawn mumbled. He stuffed all his worldly possessions: two Yi Coins and a rusty fork, into his pocket and opened the door.

Lin stood outside wearing a white dress shirt and a black skirt. “It’s time to work,” Lin said. She sighed and ran her hands through her brown hair. “I’m sorry about yesterday.” Shawn waited for her to elaborate. The silence grew thick as he waited.

Lin stomped her foot. “Stop making it weird, idiot. If you keep acting like that I’m going to take back my apology.”

Shawn raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Alright. What are we doing today?”

Lin led Shawn to the main room of the tavern, this time walking at a pace he could keep up with. “You’ll be following me as I deliver packages around town. Be sure to memorize the route because you’ll have to do it yourself tomorrow.” Chule handed her a small wooden box. A faint herbal scent leaked out of the box. I wonder what’s in it. “After that, Chule wanted to see if you were any good at washing dishes.”

They exited the Scorpion’s Den. “Fair enough. I’m surprised that Chule is letting me get near his plates again.” Shawn power walked as he struggled to keep up with Lin. People hurried out of their way.

Lin chuckled. “He’s a nice guy, he just really cares about his plates. Collecting them is his hobby. It’s always funny to see him blow up when someone damages them,” she said then turned down a side road. Shawn followed.

“It’s not very funny when it's happening to you.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never stabbed a plate till it broke before.” She flashed John a smile to let him know that she was joking. “Speaking of that night, you said your family was killed by a scorpion. Does that mean you're from Xieli?” Shawn wilted, he had said that when he thought he was going to die. He never thought someone would bring it up later.

“Yeah, how did you know,” Shawn said, his face scrunched up as if he had eaten a lemon

“Xieli is the only place on the continent where you can find wild scorpions. Or at least that’s what I’ve read. How is it there? I've always wanted to see it.”

“Xieli village well you know it’s… it’s cold. It snows a bunch there.”

Lin poked him in the side. “Where are you really from?”

Shawn ignored the burning pain in his side as he began to panic. “I'm telling the truth, I’m from Xieli. Why do you ask?”

“It doesn’t snow in Xieli. It’s one of the warmest places on the continent.” Shawn's heart skipped a beat as he wracked his brain, trying to come up with a lie to get him out of this situation. He hadn’t expected Lin to know so many random geography facts.

Lin shook her head. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from. No one stays in Najian because they want to be here,” she said as she gestured at the buildings around her.

Relief coursed through Shawn’s veins. Lin doesn’t care that I lied about where I’m from? That’s surprisingly kind of her.

“Why?” Shawn asked, eager to shift the topic away from his previous lies.

Lin peered into the distance. Shawn followed her gaze and saw nothing but a thick haze. “No one wants to be here because of the Golden Fire Sect. Everyone here is a reject. Living in the shadows of your failures is enough to make anyone insane.

“That’s a little dramatic. It’s a little run down, but this place doesn’t seem too bad.”

“You’re new here?” Shawn nodded. “Give it time and you’ll see,” Lin said as she glanced at his stained necklace.

The conversation died out and they walked in silence. Shawn used the newfound quiet time to check a blue box that he had been ignoring since he had woken up. While walking, he had figured out that if he focused hard enough, he could shift the box to the corner of his vision.

Congratulations! You have regenerated 1 Devourer Point while sleeping.

“We’re here. Stay outside while I drop off the package, don’t wander off.” Shawn watched as Lin entered a run-down building.

Shawn leaned against a wall as the minutes ticked by, growing more bored each second. What’s taking Lin so long? All she has to do is drop off a package.

His spiraling thoughts were cut off as he saw a rat dart into an alley. Shawn smiled as he stalked after the creature. The desire to improve himself with his [Devourer] skill burning in the back of his mind. Embarrassment tempered that desire, he didn’t want to have a repeat of last night. Shawn checked to make sure no one was watching, then entered the alley.

The alley was a veritable treasure trove. Groups of rats ran about the alleyway, devouring trash. Before he would have been disgusted by the sight, but now each rat represented a tangible boost to his power. A particularly fat rat stood at the mouth of the alleyway, busy eating a chunk of rotten cheese.

The rat was so enamored with its cheese that it didn’t bother moving away from him as he approached it. Shawn frowned. Even though it was just a rat, he felt bad for what he was about to do. "Sorry, buddy. I wish I didn’t have to do this."

Shawn stomped his foot as hard as he could. He missed, painful reverberations ran up his shin bone. The rat stared up at him, its little red eyes taunting him. “Now you’re asking for it. No more mister nice guy.” Shawn chased after the rat.

Shawn was soaked with sweat by the time he finally defeated his mortal enemy. He glanced at the dark haze that hung above the town. It couldn’t have taken too long to catch the rat, but I should finish up here quickly. I wouldn’t want Lin to find me passed out in an alley.

Use Devourer Point Y/N?

He pressed yes and was transported to the void. This time it wasn’t completely empty. Floating innocently was the black wisp of light he absorbed last time he was here. It had changed while he had been gone.

The wisp had not only grown more solid, but it also began to affect the void itself. Small motes of light would periodically drop out of the wisp, combining to create a vague outline of a landscape. Right now the landscape consisted of only a few ghostly outlines of sand dunes, but it had only been one day. There was no telling how much the light may change the void given enough time.

Shawn quickly looked away from the wisp, beginning to feel the familiar tug on his mind. He didn’t want to experience being a scorpion again.

“You’re back! It’s so boring here,” the childish voice gleefully whispered. With the arrival of the voice came the arrival of the wisps. Color flooded the void painting the ghostly sand dunes in every color imaginable.

“Hello,” Shawn called out into the void, as he scanned the void, careful to not look too closely at any of the wisps. The voice did not respond.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Without prompting three wisps underwent a transformation and circled around him. The first wisp was blood red, forcing images of obsession into his mind. The longer he looked at it the more engrossed he became. He felt a familiar tugging sensation come from the wisp, but he fought back. He had no desire to experience what the wisp had in store for him.

Rat Pounces on Cheese Lvl 1: Gain a small boost of agility while moving towards a marked target, as well as an instinctual understanding of where the marked target is as long as it is within 100 feet of the caster.

The skill the wisp offered was good, but the bizarre name put him off a bit. Also, he felt that a small boost to his low agility score of 2 wouldn’t be very helpful. Whereas a flat increase in stats would be better in the short term. He only had one open skill slot, so if he was going to pick a skill, it would have to be really good.

With his dismissal the red wisp floated away, leaving only two aspects of the rat left. He glanced at the yellow wisp and willed its blue screen to appear.

Ravenous Nose of the Rat Lvl 1: Channel Qi to your nose to increase your sense of smell. The increase is proportional to the amount of Qi spent.

The skill didn’t seem very useful to Shawn. He struggled to think of a circumstance where he would have to track someone by smell. Overall, the skill sounded like it would be very useful for a rat in search of food, but almost useless for normal human use.

Finally, one wisp was remaining. It was bright orange in color jerking back and forth at high speeds. Just by looking at the wisp, he could feel a surge of energy run through his system. He knew this one would be good.

Nimble Legs of the Lesser Rat: Agility +5

An increase of five agility would more than double his speed. With this, he could finally match the average walking speed of a pedestrian. Although he would burn through his stamina rather quickly when moving fast, he still thought taking this attribute boost would be the best decision.

Shawn reached out with his mind and touched the lively orange light. The wisp jittered in excitement then merged with his flame body, filling his mind with abstract concepts.

For a moment he experienced the world as a rat would. The all-consuming fear of a predator that sent his heart into overdrive, the single-minded desire for food, the joy of exploring an underground tunnel system.

Before he could go too deep into the experience Lin shook him awake. “Why are you sleeping in a pile of trash? I thought I told you not to wander off.” Shawn rubbed his eyes feeling unexpectedly groggy.

“Sorry. It looked really comfortable, I couldn’t help myself.” Shawn glanced at the blue box that had appeared and felt his spirits lift. It was all worth it if he was able to improve himself.

Nimble Legs of the Lesser Rat: Agility +5

“Just like how you couldn’t stop yourself from stabbing that scorpion?” Shawn winced, she had gotten uncomfortably close to the truth with that statement.

“This is totally different!”

Lin sighed. “I can’t believe I got worried over someone as stupid as you. Next time I’ll just leave you in the trash.” She motioned for him to follow her.

Shawn spent the next hour following Lin around as she delivered packages. Lin had been a bit prickly ever since she found him passed out in a pile of trash, but she slowly warmed back up to him. By the time they were finishing their last delivery of the day, Lin was no longer angry at him.

Lin stopped in front of the last building they had to deliver a package to and gave him a pointed look.

“Yes, I know. I won’t go anywhere. I’m not a kid, you don’t have to worry about me,” Shawn said with a roll of his eyes. Lin entered the building.

Shawn sat down on the side of the road. He was tired from being forced to keep up with Lin’s walking speed for an hour. Even with his new increase to his agility stat, it was difficult. He hadn’t been paying much attention, but he noticed that their delivery route had taken them through progressively worse parts of town.

The building he sat outside of now was easily situated in the worst part of town he came across yet. Rough figures with torn clothing walked the streets with weapons barely concealed under their clothes. Vagrants filled the alleyways surrounding the area. Every inch of space in the area was covered with graffiti. Oddly enough, the building he sat in front of was the only graffiti-free zone.

He watched as a homeless man tossed a small green ball into his mouth, he could smell its herbal scent across the street. As the pill worked its way down his throat the man's eyes glazed over, and his features relaxed. Shawn pitied the man, if he hadn’t gotten lucky and gotten such a good job at the Scorpion’s Den he may have suffered the same fate.

The only upside of this area of town was that it was free from the gaudy lighting scheme that infected the skyscraper district. He understood why they did it, the perpetually dark sky would make the town look gloomy if they didn’t light it up. But still, all the bright lights were a nuisance that gave him a headache. From this part of town, the neon lights of the skyscrapers were reduced to a dull glow in the distance.

A cold hand slipped under his collar and picked him up. “Look what we have here. A little scorpion all alone on our turf. You bastards have been encroaching on our territory for too long. It’s about time we taught you a lesson.”

Shawn stared at his assailants. Three gaunt men stood before him, all wearing purple headbands, with knives barely concealed under their clothing. Even as Shawn’s heart hammered in his chest, he was able to notice something was off about the man. His eyes were unfocused and glazed over, similar to the homeless man he saw across the street.

“Sorry, you got the wrong guy.” Shawn waved his obviously human hands around. “As you can see I’m a human, not a scorpion.”

While talking he scanned the street to see if anyone was willing to help him. Although a crowd of people had gathered to watch, no one moved to help him, he would have to wait for Lin to finish her delivery for her to save him. The only problem was he wasn’t sure if he could last that long.

A blue box appeared but he moved it to the corner of his vision, he didn’t have time to get distracted.

The man contemplated Shawn’s words for a moment before shaking him. “You think you’re funny? I can see that stupid necklaces all of you scorpions wear.” Shawn inwardly swore, he thought the man would have been out of it enough to be able to fool him. Nevertheless, the situation wasn’t hopeless. He was stronger than he was yesterday.

"You see, when you mess with the Crimson Lotus Gang, you gotta be prepared to face the consequences. I think a fair punishment would be.” The man paused, his drug-addled mind struggling to come up with an appropriate punishment. “Your hand. We’ll cut off your hand and then we can call it even.”

Shawn felt a chill go down his spine. He enjoyed having two hands. "What did I ever do to you, we've never met before."

"You scorpions' have been stealing our business. That's unacceptable, so our boss told us to send a message." The raggedy man dragged him into a nearby alley, giving him flashbacks to yesterdays' near-death encounter.

Once in the alley, the man let go of his collar and grabbed his arm. The two other members of the Crimson Lotus leaned against the wall, content to watch. Shawn attempted to free his arm but it was no use, he was at least two times stronger than Shawn.

“Hold still, this shouldn’t hurt too much,” The man said as he raised his knife, madness in his eyes. Shawn cursed himself, he shouldn't have slacked last night, if he cultivated he wouldn’t have been in this situation.

Just as the situation got desperate, Shawn spotted Lin’s black skirt as she walked out of the building. She looked back and forth, unable to see Shawn from her angle. She didn’t know where he was!

He strained his ears to the limit to hear what she was saying. “Shawn, I swear to god, if you fell asleep in another pile of trash, I’ll stab you.”

“Wait, before you cut my arm off, do you know who Lin is,” Shawn shouted at the top of his lungs? Shawn knew he was in the clear as he saw Lin slowly make her way to his position. He just needed to stall for a bit longer.

The man winced. “No need to scream bro, let me chop your arm off in peace.” The man’s casual response awakened a fire of anger deep inside him. He knew he just had to wait and Lin would save him, but he didn’t want to.

He was angry and he wanted to get back at these thugs. Even if it killed him, he would fight back.

Shawn gathered his courage and spat in the man’s eye, forcing him to release him. “What the fuck?” The man backpedaled in disgust.

While the man was distracted with wiping his eye, Shawn stabbed his fork into the one area he knew he could damage on the man’s body, his eye.

The fork slipped past the man's fingers and struck the center of his eye. The man roared in pain and swung his arm as if to knock away an annoying fly. Using every ounce of his newly enhanced speed, Shawn threw himself to the floor. The strike barely missed him, the sheer force behind it ruffling his hair.

Before he could get to his feet, one of the thugs' allies kicked him in the stomach so hard he went flying out of the alleyway.

Shawn rolled to a stop on the hard floor, the breath knocked out of him. If he hadn’t increased his resistance stat yesterday, that kick would probably have broken his ribs. As things stood now, the strike would probably leave a nasty bruise, but he still could fight. He struggled to his feet and entered a rudimentary boxing stance.

“You’ll die for that,” the robed man said, the rusty fork still sticking out of his eye.

Before Shawn could get pulverized, Lin stepped in between them.