7:02 A.M.
January 26
Wintermonth 25
Northwestern foothills outside Limeroom, Veotera
Gary walked at a brisk pace through the wilderness of Limeroom’s surroundings, enjoying the sights while he struggled mentally with the slightly lessened cold of the month nearly being over. Part of him was mentally distracted by reading various text files on wilderness survival and making notes of things he felt would be immediately relevant for faster access in case of an emergency, while another part of him was scanning the surroundings he traversed. It was largely comprised of patches of largely untouched forest with an occasional sign of civilization here and there from trappers and hunters that came up into the foothills in search of game or natural resources to fill their bellies or coffers.
He kept his head on a swivel and even spun to check behind himself. Gary didn’t quite trust his passive skill 「Danger Sense」 even though it had triggered a few times before now to people from that criminal group even having mean thoughts in his direction. He wasn’t sure if the local wildlife was able to slip past it through abilities of their own or just sheer mindlessness, but there was no sense in taking a risk like that. He was still making good time thanks in large part to his high Constitution ranking giving him more efficient stamina usage and his Agility making him just flat out faster. Gary wasn’t going to be crushing Olympic sprinters any time soon - or would he? He hadn’t gone full tilt at all yet - but he was noticeably faster than he’d been before integration with the System.
He reached a nice secluded spot in the middle of a likely forested area and settled down on a thick fallen tree trunk. This was his first time out in the wilds of this world, away from people after he’d really come to terms with his isekai-ing. He had a solid-sounding lead in these ‘dungeons’ the Delvers investigated, as they sounded exactly like the rips in reality that had brought him here in the first place. Gary decided he’d have to build up some street cred among the group before he’d be a viable candidate to join a party raiding one of those.
This was also the first time he’d really be going all-out with his Skills. He’d been warned to not play around with these Ripper Rabbits, and the name alone had warned him of how they acted. He wasn’t clad in very much armor; he’d only been able to acquire a pair of leather bracers with some small plates of metal riveted onto them with the surprisingly meager funds from his first bout of plundering. Hopefully his new self was fast enough to block with them. Gary came to a thought and called up his status screen.
Name: Gary Zavon Age: 17 Gender: Male Marital Status: Single Affinity: Onyx Strength: Adept Agility: Master Constitution: Grandmaster Intelligence: Master Mana Control: Adept Mana Reserves: Prodigy (100%) Class: Plunderer (Origin) SKILLS Active
Stealth (synergy available)
Plunder (synergy available)
Sneak Attack (synergy available)
Quintessence Vivisection
Passive
Danger Sense
Perception
Martial Arts: Taekwondo
Martial Arts: Grappling
Weapons Training (Knife, handgun)
Language: English
Language: Common Veoteran
Knowledge (Architecture, Biology, Chemistry, Herbology, Mechanics, Medicine, Martial Arts, Metallurgy, Military Doctrine and Theory, Physics, Survival, Tailoring, Zoology, ...)
Gary focused on his Active Skills one at a time, and found that each expanded upon concentration to offer a blurb of flavor text. Most of them were self-explanatory and he’d been hesitant to focus on the implications of 「Quintessence Vivisection」 due to the nature of what a ‘vivisection’ was. His focusing now revealed a new detail about the System’s interface that he quickly noted down in his growing report for Earth.
Stealth This Skill allows the user to erase themselves from the perception of others. This erasure does not confer invisibility, but instead makes those around the user subconsciously ‘slide’ their gaze past the user in the manner of momentary amnesia. Reduced effectiveness against targets that have multiple senses that allow heightened perception of the world around them or with anti-concealment Skills. Drains [one (1) percent] of Mana Reserves per [five (5) minutes] of use, altered in efficiency and duration by rank of Class that grants this Skill.
Sneak Attack
This Skill allows the user to inflict particularly devastating attacks on unsuspecting victims. The user will find vulnerable points on the target laughably easy to hit with a supernatural burst of force. Drains [three (3) percent] of Mana Reserves per use, altered in efficiency by rank of the Class that grants this Skill.
Plunder This Skill is a more powerful version of the 「Steal」 Skill. The trademark ability of the Plunderer Class, this Skill allows the user to select the thing stolen from a target as long as it is theoretically removable from the target without involving bodily mutilation. Drains [twelve (12) percent] of Mana Reserves per use, altered in efficiency by rank of Class that grants this Skill.
Quintessence Vivisection This Skill is only available to Origin-grade Plunderers. This Skill allows the user to steal the unstealable. Reality is cruel, granting powers and abilities to those undeserving of withholding such ephemeral riches from your grasp. With this you can remove that aspect of the target’s reality which you covet. This removal will destroy the target’s reality in the process leading to a breakdown of their essence and thus their cohesion. Drains [seventy-six (76) percent] of Mana Reserves per use, altered in efficiency by Mana Control. Locks used Mana Reserves which are recovered at a rate of one (1) percent per two (2) hours.
Gary looked at the 「Plunder」 and 「Quintessence Vivisection」 Skills with fully wide eyes. Holy shit these were powerful! His brain immediately set to trying to figure out how to use them as efficiently as possible, and also how to make them broken as all Hell.
「Plunder」 suggested that it could steal anything a person had that didn’t require he start physically taking them apart. A smirk grew on his face as he came to a realization he’d obviously have to test before he committed to using it on the regular: information was something that could be theoretically gotten out of someone without cutting them up. If this worked the way he thought it was the ultimate interrogation tool. The usage of his Reserves so heavily didn’t thrill him but that was more than acceptable if he could get the right questions asked during such an interrogation. Not to mention the possibility in combat to nigh-instantly disarm an opponent! He was certain to run into casters that used relqa or high-tier martial combatants at some point, and most people didn’t seem versed in hand-to-hand combat here on Veotera.
And 「Quintessence Vivisection」! Dear God in Heaven, that sounded like precisely what he needed when he encountered one of these rips in reality. If he could steal the unstealable, then maybe he could stea-!
「Danger Sense」 pinged a warning in his head and Gary threw himself to the side as the feeling rushed right at him from behind. A whistling, screeching blur flew right past where he’d been as Gary came up from the dodge with both knives drawn; simple dagger in the left and Bowienet in the right. He looked at the continued source of warning from his Passive Skill and his gray eyes narrowed at the interrupter.
A rabbit of good size greeted his pale gaze as it recovered from the stumbling landing that he’d given it by dodging. The thing turned and squealed in rage at the insult of him not obediently letting himself be ambushed, long thin ears perked completely upwards as it lined up another attack run. The coloration was a russet broken up by white tips on the ears and an equally white belly, the paws being a deeper red that Gary noted in the moment was roughly the color of dried blood as opposed to the smooth red-brown russet the rest of it was.
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Finishing it’s orientation the rabbit took a few charging steps before launching itself up and at him with a startlingly powerful leap of the hind legs. As it flew towards his upper torso the rabbit turned in mid-leap to present those powerful hind legs towards him and the creature lined up what he figured was a sharp two-legged flying roundhouse kick. Gary stepped to the side again but this time rammed the simple dagger towards the creature’s chest, relying on his System-enhanced agility to provide him with the speed and accuracy to make the strike land.
Gary didn’t expect the screeching of bone on metal as the rabbit had somehow anticipated this and kicked out faster than he’d figured. Instead of landing a hit on the leg bones of the creature Gary instead found that wicked-looking bony blades had extended from the middle of the hind legs’ paws to impact and push back against the metal blade with a crashing screech of a noise. Those bony blades had to be almost the length of the rabbit’s legs, Gary realized in his adrenaline-spiked moments of clarity.
Now understanding grimly why these critters were called Ripper Rabbits, Gary pushed the non-dominant arm into a twisting parry that used the rabbit’s own clash against it to smash it into the ground back-first. Pushing on the bone blades at this angle he managed to keep the critter pinned just long enough for him to slam the Bowienet into the rabbit’s chest. A dying squeal filled with hate greeted the fatal blow and after some fast twitching the creature became death-still.
Gary’s pulse was pounding in his head and his hands shook with the force of his rushing blood. God damn he hadn’t been expecting this to be such a fight right out of the gate! He suddenly had some very dark thoughts about the man who’d suggested this contract as he withdrew his blades and stooped to examine the slain creature after glaring about the vicinity to ensure he wasn’t going to be snuck up on again. Just for good measure Gary triggered 「Stealth」 and let the word seemingly fade at the very edges of his perception into shadows, clocking the sensation and visual effect for future understanding. Now embraced by his aura of detection-obscuring he more closely examined the foe he’d just slain.
It was a good sized rabbit. The size was roughly big enough that one person could make a skinny meal out of it once you got done dressing the creature. As he took photos and manipulated the new carcass Gary noted the critter was likely a heartier meal than he’d originally thought because the muscular density was something he expected out of a healthy hunting dog as opposed to a normal rabbit. The coloration was indeed the russet dominating along with the white on the ear tips and belly, and upon closer inspection the paws being more dried blood colored was simply the hue of the creature’s fur as opposed to actually being blood.
Relaxed now in death, the bony blades of the Ripper Rabbit slid in and out of the internal leg sheaths as he manipulated the hind legs back and forth to get a feel for their range of motion. The things were wicked-looking when still: there was a very gentle curve to them where the rabbit would be slashing with it like a sickle in combat, and there were very tiny serrations along that inner curve that would aid in the blow’s effectiveness. Gary felt a chill as he looked at the natural weaponry and remembered he’d been advised to bring neck armor. These things were no joke, but he smirked to himself thinking the people behind Monty Python must have had a fever dream about these critters to come up with the Killer Rabbit.
He’d been set up, that much was obvious. It was also obvious that Remmy had something to do with it because he likely would have been sent on a lesser contract to get his feet wet without the priest’s introduction letter. An annoyed huff came out of Gary as he picked up the dead creature and looped a coil of rope around it’s neck to aid in carrying it. There were most assuredly more nearby, and Gary wasn’t disappointed as two more of the creatures ambled into view from where the first one had attacked from. They were clearly searching for what had elicited the cries from their comrade, and Gary observed the ones that had just arrived as he very slowly circled around them still in his concealed state.
At rest the critters moved like he expected normal rabbits to move; little hops and slow ambling with deliberately-placed limbs when not making large movements. If he didn’t just see one in attack mode he’d have thought they were kind of cute. Now he just saw threats and coins upon being victorious over said threats. He switched the simple dagger for the club as quietly as he could, watching the ears of the Ripper Rabbits as he did so to see if they heard the subtle movements. One ear on one of them twitched in his direction and Gary didn’t hesitate. He surged forward and smashed the club against the side of the monster’s head sending the limp body flying as 「Stealth」 broke upon the attack. The second Ripper Rabbit reacted instantly as it lashed out with a short upwards hop and a hind leg flashed out to try and catch the side of Gary’s neck as he’d stooped down to hit the first rabbit.
Gary had been anticipating this however. There was a reason he’d studied the first rabbit’s range of motion. His bracer intercepted the blow and he used his superior leverage against a non-grounded opponent to fling the critter down into the dirt back-first before coming back in with the club to catch the rabbit’s kicking legs like he had with the first one using the dagger. The beast screeched hate and fury at him, wriggling and madly twitching as it tried to get out from under his pinning maneuver.
“I’ve got your measure now, you little shits. I’m faster than you,” he hissed at the Ripper Rabbit who hissed back up at him in animalistic fury at being trapped. Thinking to his Active Skills he decided to bite the bullet on one. He needed to know if 「Quintessence Vivisection」 worked the way he thought it did, and he had a test subject right here! Gary steeled himself for what was likely to be a particularly cruel action, but it was in service of a greater cause. “I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, little monster, but there’s way more lives at stake than yours. Hopefully this is quick…”
Gary bent down further, grabbed the creature by the chest in a way that wouldn’t get him bitten at the last moment, took a deep breath, and triggered the Skill.
The Ripper Rabbit immediately took on a pitch and tone of scream that made Gary regret what he’d just done. The poor thing sounded like it was getting everything inside of it destroyed by a thousand different methods all at once, and it seemed to crumble under the weight of it’s own fading existence. That was nothing compared to the feeling Gary had inside him.
A torrent of power from that spot right under his heart where his mana resided poured out, emptying himself out as it formed a pattern at his grasping hand and metaphysically tore into the Ripper Rabbit. He felt the power he was surrendering to the Skill returning his investment even as he started to feel hollowed out from the surging tide leaving him. Something about himself felt slightly reinforced as the Skill finished it’s grisly work and the rabbit crumbled to flickering black dust in his grip and ceased to be a thing as it faded into seeming nothingness.
Gary found himself stumbling backwards and he hit the forest’s dirt with his butt, sitting there as he processed what had just happened. What he had just done. As if anticipating what he wanted to know, an abbreviated version of his status screen flicked to life before him to confirm the feeling he had internalized.
Mana Reserves: Prodigy (23%) {76% of total reserves locked. 1% unlocked in: 1:59:35}
The percentage he had left looked accurate accounting for a single use of 「Stealth」 and 「Quintessence Vivisection」 each to leave him with twenty-three percent of his reserves remaining. The feeling of fortification touched him to seemingly disappear into what he was tentatively calling his System-based feeling of Agility, leading him to think that maybe he’d absorbed a bit of the Ripper Rabbit’s vitality in the process. The System startled him as a familiar box popped up in front of him; one he hadn’t been expecting.
Hello again! It seems you’ve gained a new Skill! Congratulations on a successful use of your Origin-grade Skill to acquire it. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Gary blinked as a third window popped up showing what he felt was settled into his body fully. Gary grimly understood now that this unsettling sensation wasn’t just absorbing the Ripper Rabbit’s vitality to fortify his own, but was also him gaining a new power based on some aspect of the creature he’d taken it from. So this horror of a Skill did work like he thought it did. It would be a simple question at this point if it only worked on living things. He doubted that would be a problem given the flavor text of it.
Leap This is an inherent ability of the Ripper Rabbit, Plundered by you to become your own power. With this Passive Skill, you will be able to jump much higher, longer, and more efficiently than you could before. This Skill will also allow you to survive longer falls with less damage, where anything within your new jump distance’s range will now no longer cause damage upon landing provided you land correctly. This Skill’s ranges improve with Agility.
He was stunned into silence as he read and re-read the description. He’d gained a Passive Skill with this, just like that?! He didn’t even want to think of the bloody training it would have taken to develop this Skill on his own, if it could even be done in the first place. The thought of what he could potentially gain from the monsters that were bound to be in the world at large was almost worrying in it’s scope. Surely there had to be some hidden caveat other than being locked out of most of his mana for days at a time. There’s no way he’d lucked into this strategic of a cheat skill, right?
The System’s box flitted away with it’s task done, leaving him to clearly bear witness to the Skill one still floating in his vision. With a grunt at the implications Gary waved the boxes away and stood up at last. He dusted his butt off and went to retrieve the other rabbit to add it to the first on the length of rope. He was really going to turn into a full-on isekai protagonist, wasn’t he? Oh God. Was he going to have to deal with a harem at some point? Fuck, he thought to himself, I’m not gonna be a goddamn beta simp when it comes to women.. Right? Gary shook his head as he walked towards a nearby tree and looked up at the boughs with their lovely green foliage.
Trope considerations aside, Gary just had to test this new Skill. The nearest branch on the tree - an oak by the looks of it - was at least nine to ten feet straight up from his position. Checking with the Virtual Network’s stash of information, he found that the average human could get about a foot and a half of height while the record stood at almost four by a trained professional at what was likely the limits of the unaugmented human body. Was this Skill proportional to body length? Did it just add a multiplier to what he could already do? One way to find out. He tensed the muscles in his legs, crouched a bit to add momentum to the attempt, and leapt.
In the end, Gary overshot the branch he was aiming for by about a foot. Quickly reacting to his overshoot, he’d grasped the main trunk in a rough deathgrip of a hug as he contemplated the pain he’d experienced by jerking himself into rough contact with the very solid tree. He finally convinced himself to look down and spot the original target of his attempt and with a bit of wriggling maneuvers he lined himself up with the branch and landed with no issues to his balance. Likely his Agility at work helping him to stay stable where he’d normally probably start to wobble to keep balance. A quiet thrill was settling into Gary’s bones. He looked through the mostly-full canopy and saw the canopies of other trees stretching for a bit before his vision was obscured by the forest at large.
He could do this. A bit at a time, but he could do this! This wasn’t a race, it was a marathon. Admittedly likely a timed marathon, but he wouldn’t be able to build his Rome in a day. The effective cooldown on 「Quintessence Vivisection」 was going to be a strategic problem but it was one he could plan around now that he had a grasp on how it worked. It was also a Skill that he’d have to make damn sure not to use on living creatures anywhere near other people. Did it work on corpses? Probably not, since the target had to have a reality to steal from. The only reality a corpse had was a still Death, and that could backfire super fast.
Eyeing the ground, Gary gleefully stepped off of the branch and landed with barely a flexing of the knees which was probably just a residual reflex at this point as he walked deeper into the forest. He had Ripper Rabbits to find. This marathon was well underway, and he’d be damned if he came in last place.
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Jack stood at the entrance to the shed behind The Unusual Huntress, confronted by a sight that made him at once proud of listening to the priest’s letter and concerned for the pockets of the Delvers.
The young man sat on a wooden crate next to a small pile of Ripper Rabbits on a tarp designed for laying out kills to be worked on. By small pile it was relative because while it wasn’t higher than Jack’s knees the pile also spread out about his arm’s full span. His gray eyes sparkled in the late afternoon’s light turning them into a liquid silver pierced by impenetrable voids that were his slightly dilated-with-happiness pupils. There were a few dirt marks on his clothes and a new tear in the clearly-mended crimson cloak, but the young man looked like he’d come out like a bandit robbing candy from an orphanage of sickly children.
The kid’s grin didn’t dissipate as he looked at the pile Jack was goggling at before looking back to the Delver staff member. “Didn’t know how many you folks wanted, so I figured I’d field dress them and let you sort out who gets the meat. Might wanna go over the kills a bit more in case I missed some part of the process. Better safe than sorry, right?” Jack noted a playful tone in reference to the remnants of slaughter before him, and shook his head in amused resignation as he looked at the bounty he’d had brought in.
“You didn’t have to go this far on your first day, kid.”
“Monsters they may be, but they’re still rabbits. You gotta take out big chunks at a time to cut the overall numbers or they’ll just tank the hit.” Jack didn’t know what ‘tank the hit’ meant, but the context gave him the clue that it roughly meant ‘survive the loss’. It was a curious turn of phrase he hadn’t heard before.
“Aye,” Jack simply agreed as he rolled his tongue around in his mouth, calculating how much this pile was worth and who he could sell the sudden influx of meat to. The fur was probably worth a good deal for lining winter coats, and the leather was going to be good material for the leather workers of the city. Ripper Rabbit leather was fantastic for gloves. The kid had come out with quite a haul. He moved up and inspected the pile of dead monsters more closely. The boy had clearly been taught how to dress a kill to preserve the skin for leather making while cleaning out the guts to keep the meat good.
“So, I’d like to take this moment to speak on a matter with you, sir.” Jack looked up from his inspection to see the boy’s silvery gray gaze locked on his own eyes. The gaze was calm, level, and he swore he could feel a twinge of murderous intent lurking in the unshifting stare. “Remmy told you to set me up, right? These things are no joke in a fight, and they know how to fight like a damn wolf pack. If I were any weaker I’d be dead right now.”
Jack swallowed. The boy was perceptive. His facial expression must have given him away, as the new Delver’s demeanor shifted as he leaned back and broke away the murderous energy in his gaze to simply look at Jack in a stern manner.
“Thought so. In the end I’m not upset, just mildly disappointed that you understated the danger level. You and Remmy semi-unintentionally gave me exactly what I needed. So I forgive you. Warn me properly next time, okay?”
“Understood.” It wasn’t like being threatened by a misinformed Delver hadn’t earned Jack similar threats in the past but he felt like this young man was really able to deliver on it in a way the others couldn’t. Jack knew he was a Plunderer Class, but he wasn’t sure what grade he was. The casual confidence and hill of dead Ripper Rabbits pointed to a high one. “It’s gonna take a bit to get the kills sorted and parts shuffled off to who gets what. Go talk to Dina for the contract payment, and tell her I said ‘in excess’ when you tell her the number you did. She’ll understand the phrasing. It’ll take a day or two for us to get payment for the parts, minus a handling fee for final disassembly. You can check back in.. let’s call it three days?”
His brown-haired head nodded as the new Delver hopped off the crate and headed towards the door Jack had exited from to come to the backyard of the tavern-slash-Delver-branch. “Sorry about all the work,” he said as he reached the door and turned back before opening it.
Jack waved him off. “Better too much than not enough. People are gonna be happy at this news and the sudden windfall.” A nod met Jack’s comment and the boy vanished inside the building with a flutter of crimson fabric.