Something robbed a year of my life but everytime I ask somebody about myself they praise me for my hard work I put into the last year and tell me about things which can’t be true or rather are impossible for me. I bought a new car? Where is it! I’ve got the highest score possible on my final exams? How! I don’t even possess the books or notes for the subjects and why would be all my exams gone? And where is this private School I transferred to? The only thing my family says is that I should stop worrying myself and be proud to ace a private school with the help of a stipendium. “We always knew you were a genius.” Stop kidding me! As a kid maybe, but now I am only average! Fifteen points in german and englisch, yeah of course because it is the easiest thing to do when I have dyslexia.
Finished with my training I appreciate to let off some steam, I stop hammering my bare fists into the punchbag. I take glance at the selfmade sweat drenched wooden swords leaning against the wall and start to calm down while the chains holding onto the punching bag are still rattling filling the room with a sound of steel. Feeling I got enough training for today and seeing my hands slightly coated with my blood I decide to get into the shower and relax a little before my laptop.
Refreshed after the shower and now accompanied by a slightly lesser pain I turn my laptop on but cannot suppress a heavy sigh which leaves my lips as I read the encased graduation diploma on the wall again. If I bought a new car why not a new computer? While I wait for the system to boot I grab the unusual thick letter for which I even had to sign a delivery confirmation and open it carfully trying only to damage the envelope.
“Dear James Mikos,
we are honored by your application for the courses of Artificial Intelligence in our university and are more than ready to provide a Stipendium. It was more than unusual for a student to ask for an unattended year to be payed and brought some heated discussions to our university board as we are not by any means a nameless institution even considering your grades it was hard to decide all the more when we were unable to contact the school you graduated at but after we were showed the “prototype” as you called it in your resume there was no more need to discuss. We are more than pleased with the right to claim your work was produced in our facilities and by the offered deal the first pay was conducted and the rest will follow as we signed it in your contract. We don’t understand the need to hold your studies for a year but are more than willing to wait. We don’t know how the researchers of our facilities became aware of your existence but they requested us to give you the address to their website so there might come the opportunity to become acquainted with each other. We hope for a successful cooperation.
With utmost regards the university board of gr**ningen.”
After the formal letter was only a contract which only obligated me to study in their university for three years and allowing them to use my name and put their label under my potential works. In return I will get a monthly payment of 3000€ for 4 years with the transaction of the first payment today. My memories started again only since two weeks and surprised with a new apartment and without an idea how to pay for it I am more than happy about the money. They said themselve I only need to study there and let them use me for marketing I should not feel sorry for them if they came to regret it because I am not the person they claim me to be. Also there is my fresh awakened curiosity which would love to get new input about my dearest subject, artificial intelligence. So now accustomed to the everyday surprises my “past me” seems to have prepared I decide to take a peek on the address provided by an extra sheet of paper.
I stepped in the forum in which people discussed about the possibilities to develop a virtual reality and how an A. I. acting as a god should be programmed while others thought about the possible constructions of a device to let ust experience such a reality with all our senses. After they seemed to go a round in circles there was a link posted at the end of the thread before it was closed due the people going more and more offtopic. I could just smirk about the ridiculous idea of a working VR-device with our current technology but the game loving part of my personality hoped for the link to be a little surprise. The link seems to belong to separate network something like Tor because it was not clickable and written in a strange code made of random symbols. After a quick search with the good old Tor browser I was with the help of a decoder finally able to use the hidden Torlink.
What welcomed me was a black website with "second chance" written in the center in white bold letters and a buy option with bitcoins as a currency directly below it. It was literally screaming scam at you but for the price of one bitcoin there could be really a chance you would never normally get. On a old online wallet I had always a bitcoin which I earned through mining in the early days of this scam currency and with this opportunity I would be even happy to lose it. In short I buyed whatever was offered.
The next day came the unexpected good with the aim to turn my reality upside down, again, delivered in a typical inconspicuous DHL package. After I left my signature with the Postman I could finally quench my curiosity and opened the basketball sized package. What I found was a metallic cube inscribed with many to me unknown signs it could come straight from the Transformer Movies. To be honest my first idea was to throw my mobile at it to test if something will happen but then I thought about scenarios in which a pandoras box or an world destruction device hold similar designs letting me feel a little uneasy about throwing things at it. So what do we do with a unknown object which does and doesn't seems life threatening? We touch it! But reasoning my “experiment” with the unharmed state of the package there was nothing else to do.
[With a little touch the gears build around us began that day to spin a little faster.]
I say aloud acting as an evil mastermind for the fun of it.
With the atmosphere I made for myself there was not really a way for me to be surprised by something, maybe excluding world destruction but the result I got was another one. The Cube turned in a little Golem which looked like a clumsy made Childlike Dwarf with a body made out of a blackish metal. But the color change from green metallic to black metalic was unexpected and although I don’t understand the technology behind the device I can’t see any reasons for the change of colors.
[Good Evening Sir I am your tutorial obtained through your currently most neutral money currency ]
The little statue announced its existence with a strong mechanical voice which even now echos through the room. As if it realized there could be something wrong it starts slowly to shake his whole body and the his little limbs as if he have been freezed and now tries to warm himself up making natural motions possible again. Then it leaves the package slowly using the air as stairs and takes a proud stance before me creating the illusion it stands on invisible platform. Unconcerned with the package anymore I let it drop and use the now free hand to test the sight before me for a wire as if it was the now most natural thing to do. Only when my eyes shift to the figure before me I see the Tutorial looking at me patiently as if awaiting something.
[Hmm.. a response would be now appropriate. Good afternoon Tutorial. ]
The creature makes a shocked expression as if realising a grave Mistake.
[Ohh how rude from me I plead for an excuse I forced my Master to speak without even introducing myself. I am more than ready to accept any punishment.]
[No Problem it seems for is this situation also new a good excuse to let it slide, but to get to the more important matter what do you mean by Tutorial?]
Not realising myself how I naturally accepted our relationship of master and servant as a matter of fact I examine his body which seems with time get more and more details and even lets a typical butler attire appear on the metalish body.
[If my mind didn’t undergo corruption this word should represent transferring by the creator chosen knowledge ]
[So who is your creator?]
[So you don’t know. You are also my tutorial. So with you I am able to play a game?]
I could ask him about his rules but if I start to doubt his words there will be with this little information no end to it.
[No, start the tutorial.]
[Thank you my possessor I shall oblige. I will provide you with the necessary basic informations and common knowledge needed for an effective use of [Second Chance].]
A window with the size of a Computer Screen appears before me in the air and shows the word “Tutorial” in white letters on a blue background.
A new window replaces the old one before me.
Welcome to your tutorial and thank you for your purchase. At the end of the tutorial a [Second Chance] will be immediately provided. We recommend to let your body rest on a comfortable place before the end of the tutorial.
[We should start with the basics, the knowledge about magic and experience. A being consists out of three bodies the Blood- Aether- and Mindbody. The Bloodbody is neither your flesh nor your blood but the life energy which lies within. It acts as a shell for your other bodies formed through a mix of a soul part and a mana part. Its made by your aetherbody to act as a shield and provide you with a corpus to make a life in the physical realm possible. As well is it less straining for the soul and gives also the chance to strengthen itself and relax acclimating to the bloodbody made corpus. I was assured the usage of the word “healthpoints” shall provide a better explanation.]
He makes a small break examining me as if trying to confirm my comprehension of the explained subject and also my payed attention to it. After he sees there are no questions to be expected as I am devouring every of his words fascinated by the new conception of the World he continues with his explanation.
[Every living being posses also a Mindbody which acts as the drive for the own “Existence” a reason for the own materialization which origins from another Mindbody formed through something you would call mana and tasked to became a home for a matching soul or if there is no match with the creation of a new one. Meanwhile is the Aetherbody originating from the exchange between the Mindbody and Soulbody your conscious and consists of all the experiences and other devoured Aetherbodyparts of which your soul didn’t get a hold yet. Also upon death brings the Aetherbody some of the Blood- and Mindbody with it which can be absorbed in a short timeframe by another being you would name it “gaining Exp”. Upon death you will be provided with a another body and a new beginning of your [Second Chance] so everything except your experience will be lost. I shall also recommend the obtainment of a [CC] commonly distributed by the [Dolls]. With the commands [Second Chance] and [Home] and enough concentration you will be able to alternate between your bodys. Everything else will be decided and make known within [Second Chance]. That were all my providable informations, do you wish to end the [Tutorial]? ]
Simultaneously to the explanation provided by the irregular existence the window was flooded with pictograms visualizing the presentation with the help of little humor and simplification.
[What!?]
I exclaim after the fast paced change between a new world philosophy and game mechanics followed up with the promise of no further information.
[That sounds like a to heavy roleplay for a game, almost real...]
I slip up and destroy that way the serious becoming atmosphere but as the creature doesn’t even react I decide to follow the first advice I got and go to my bed.
[Wait a minute I will just follow the advice and lie down on my bed. Do I get now a headgear or how is this [Second Chance] supposed to work?]
I may sound perplexed after lying down on my bed but to be honest I just don't like to change my position into a recumbent one when there is something I don’t trust, it makes me feel vulnerable. Realising now it is too late for such reactions I keep my emotions at bay with a straight face and wait for the sound of the slightly mechanical voice.
[Do you wish to end the Tutorial?]
Speaks the slight mechanical Voice out of the now on the floor lying Package as if stating there are no other options to continue besides answering this question.
[Yes]
With my answer I can see how the Tutorial transforms itself into a black orb and starts to fly towards me. In an instant it gets in contact with my body only to be absorbed making me feel something new within myself as if there is a metallic warm liquid flowing through me. Before I can ask myself how I am able to tell it could be metallic the liquid disappears as if it was eaten by me. Now surprised and clueless how to react I try to relax on my bed. After a few seconds pass without a new surprise I decide to take things into my own hands remembering I was only left with the commands [Home] and [Second Chance] as the only way to interact with the system I decide to try my luck.
[Second Chance]
I feel as if I am breaking through my body only to be pulled within an energy column. But before I can realise what happens around me everything ends in an instant leaving me overwhelmed. In a rush of adrenalin I destroy the earth enclosing me to find myself filled with anger and frustration feelings which origin I am unable to tell. Slowly calming down while breathing the hot dry air I start to sort my thoughts.
[So … this is a “Game”?]
A question I am now unable to answer and the only solution for it would be my death.
As if I was trying to convince myself of the undesirable condition I am now in I voice my thoughts. I remember I similiar situation I dreamed about. I try to sort my memories out while taking the view in. I am surrounded by barren land and stand there in my birth suit under the scorching sun. I stop my body from his attempts to cool down because any attempt would be futile and would make it even harder to withstand this heat. I keep standing in the moved earth I was buried in and trying to defend my feets against the heat coming from the ground. A hardcore game? I take a better look at the horizon and find a mountain in a distance of few kilometers. Now the memory I was looking for…
~
“Where are you going, J****!”
I couldn’t the name understand the name he used as if it was shouted through a storm. I hold my feet and grab the handle of my sword before I make a turn to face the voice. A slightly horned Man with a deep brown skin comparable to leather stands near the city entrance I used.
“You were?”
“What do you mean with that? Ahh forget it. More important where do you think are you going? There are the wastelands the dangers here are way more life threatening than the things you know from your forest. Come back when the three moon nights passed you can come with us. How do you even think you can survive.”
As if it was a reflex I draw the sword from my back in an fast arc letting the dry air whip my surroundings. A red steel reflects the moons on the sky.
“What?! Didn’t you say you were a bowman? You didn’t have a sword before.”
The wind carry a slight scent of sweat fills me with bloodlust letting my body slightly tremble in excitement. Before I can bring myself to stutter something a new voice stops the man in an attempt to hold me.
“Marco let him be. He is a Hunter and we were warned he could leave us if there are too many beasts. Such bloodlust ...”
I was already too distant to get all the words but what was now more important to me was the boarlike beast I cut in half lying before me. I could sense a cold stare following me but I was too excited with the blood path I was creating before me.
~
… A strange dream it was but most of them are. So with the assumption there exists magic I think to hunt is the only option to survive in this area.
In theory such ideas are marvellous but after realizing monsters in this area are nothing to joke around my only solution may prove to be harder than expected. The neccessary knowladge was forced into me by a giant Lizard. The monster was similar to a Komodo dragon but it didn’t posses the modesty to keep the same size. The beast had the size of a typical wyver from fantasy novels maybe a height of 6 meters and a length of 22m? But I can’t be sure if I got the size right after all I didn’t posses the time to make better measurements.
To my demise the Lizard possesses also the trait to swallow his food while it lives and let it slowly die in his stomach. The gastric acid is slowly burning or melting my skin. I don’t know how you describe it. I let panic take over my mind to keep the adrenalin high enough to dull the pain which forces his way into my mind. A surreal view surrounds me I am mixed with some stones while a faint red light fills the stomach from every side. I assumed light couldn’t been seen from inside a body. To such a burning kind of pain I am already a little resisted through my scorching baths but none the less I am not waiting for the monster to end my life but I already begun to hold my breath a minute ago. Now that I feel more and more light headed my end should be near. Now we will see if it is a game.
Darkness only Darkness fills my vision. I feel something coming. I am dead? Did I lose my conscious? Where am I? Something is near. The void ceases to exists a familiar feeling spreads through my body. The feeling of earth.
After crawling out of earth, again, I find nothing else than the familiar landscape of scorched earth and barren lands before me. My hunger and thirst did diminish but were now still stronger than by the start of my first life but it could be only an illusion caused by the now greater attention paid to them. When I see the sunset I can not do anything else than hope for a cooler night. So in the end it is really a Game, still even when I could avoid such dangerous monsters without the chance to adapt it would be only a matter of time for my death to come. The fact that this a realistic game fills me somehow with confidence to survive this wastelands.
Now more adapted to my nakedness and the lurking dangers I feel more motivated to explore this area and are now even ready to accept a second death as unpleasing as it may be. The fresh nightmare from the mountains is still viewid to me, reason enough to try my luck into the opposite direction of the lizard. I find a stone which is so smooth as if coming from a river a reason why I decide to use him as a blunt weapon. I decide to kick the stone before I take it with my hand but in exact this moment a scorpion crawls out and stings my foot. Slightly cursing I grab the stone as fast as I can and squash the scorpion with it to satisfy my anger towards him. I stretch my foot and after taking a cross legged seat I try to suck some of the venom out ignoring the hot earth sticking to my bums. At the same time trying to hamper the blood circulation in the poisoned foot with the strong grip of my hands.
So after the usage of the flexibility of my body and the taste of pure blood in my mouth I feel my body stiffen. Accepting that dying could became a habit in this world for me I stop my pointless saving measures and relax on the still hot earth. Lying on the earth I look at the last sun rays slowly leaving but when I look at the mountain where the sunset is I realize there a two suns overlapping each other something so obvious was ignored by me through the whole day. I can still feel my whole skin sticking to the earth but the poison seems not only to paralyse my body but with it also my pain perception and that is reason enough for me to relax and enjoy my death. After a few seconds of darkness I can savour a view which wouldn’t be obtainable on earth. Stars and four moons brighten the cloud free sky as if fighting against each other who can shine brighter.
The moons differ in size and color the biggest moon is the green one he would be five times as big as our moon and the red with the blue one a three times as big as our moon but the white moon has nearly the same size and even has a comparable structure. The pain and hardships from today were worth it when think of them as a price to pay for this view. With this sight I can truly relax and embrace the second death which awaits me. But I am not someone to kill himself over and over again things light that destroy your character. Reason enough for me to concentrate on the state of my body but when I start concentrating what surprises me is that I can really feel the poison spreading in me but not only the poison but a similar liquid I felt when I absorbed the golem. And the poison seems to be eating this liquid again. I think about how you over blur slight faults by the correct pieces. If I can feel it I should be able to influence it. I try to move the healthy liquid in my body but it feels as if you were blowing at water to flow another way a tedious and difficult task.
I start to use my concentration to stop the poison in my body from spreading as if stopping a plant from spreading her roots and slowly pulling her out. A pain fills my body some hours may passed since my training with this new sense and now when I try to kill the poison I am rewarded with pain. I don’t want to feel any longer as if someone was tearing my limbs apart and concentrate to stop the growth of the poison while trying to make my control and force stronger. I think it could have something to do with the bloodbody the golem talked about because there couldn’t be anything else influenced by poison from my understanding. Mana could be by the bloodbody and not Poison but I could be also wrong. My eyes fill with terror I let my concentration waver and had to pay with even greater pain than before as if someone electroshocked my nerve system.
To my luck it lasted a mere moment but it was none the less dreadful but I am sure single word is not enough for this pain. I seem not to feel any sleepiness but a different tool is put on my body as I stress my mind with this difficult task. I don’t know how to describe it but it feels like my whole body would be an arm trying to hold something in air letting the arm loose more and more strength, numbing asking for a break a little breath to take. I remember a movie about youths which developed psychic abilities, they described their ability as if new limb would be growing out of their head, and here it is a limb spreading through my body. To know the things available to me as fast as possible I decide against the break and prepare for something bringing me death or letting me even survive.
I gather all my strength into the underdeveloped limb I can muster. A heat as if I were heating up iron inside me starts to burn me from my insides. More than one curse if kept in me thanks to paralysis but even now I don’t stop. The pain becomes again an ally which I am now using to measure the force I try to gather. More! I need More …!
I remember a Bathtub filled to the brim with water, the whole room was hotter than a sauna but fearing I may wasted water I jump quickly in with the wish to destroy the evidence. My whole body burns every movement I made in the water changed the feeling of pain from burning to melting. I would have cried on the sight of the slightly loose becoming skin but all strenght I had I used to grind my teeth to endure to strengthen. An hour later I finished chunks of dead skin were peeling of me leaving on some places just enough skin so that blood can’t leave my body. Every step I made was filled with pain and every wind blowing on my body made the pain even worse. I was red enough for a color sample red enough to let people think I was covered in blood and when I was trying to sleep a smile forced its way on my face. The pain was not enough to let me forget the suffering of my soul but enough to distract me. So I didn’t stop my smile.
Yes! This feeling, this pain will be enough. A grin takes his place on my face as if ignoring the poison's effects. I the same moment I use all my might as if aiming a hit at the roots spread in my body to destroy the poison. The pain becomes strong enough to numb every thought but I force my mind to focus on the sight before me not letting my now nearly tearing up limb loose. I see nearly a meter long blood column leaving my body which I am able to feel as if every blood atom was a fingertip. Its way easier to gather the blood back into my body but even for this task I seem to lack enough power because when my vision becomes darker and darker I can feel some of the blood falling to earth. Void becomes my world darkness its color.
I wake up without pain but with enough thirst and hunger to make up for it but a the strange sensation as if someone was standing one my cloth lets me even feel more discomfort. It is still night when I look at the sky and the moons are still bright enough to keep things in a distance of 20m visible. I stand up and make moves as if pulling a shirt which I of course don’t wear. Realising how foolish it was I look at my feets to find my right foot standing on a little puddle of blood and when I lift it the strange feeling disappears only to be replaced by the awareness of the existence and position of the blood. Fascinated by the new discovery I decide to try something new. I concentrate on this blood as if trying to adjust to a new tool and start my try to move it. The thick liquid starts slowly to collect into a little droplet forming on its surface but alone this act forces nearly to my limit of my strenght. I stop my first experiment and try to focus on the blood in my right foot which I try to use for a bridge connecting to the puddle. I am punished again by pain but its laughable to the feat I endured by my detoxication and when I try to use as little blood as I can the pain is bearable. I can also notice my new sense seems sharper and stronger than before but what interests me even more is the result of my experiment. I could absorb my blood back even after it lost some of its moistness and I can am pretty sure I feel better I don’t know in exactly which way but something is better.
One last thing to do before I can continue my journey. I examine the wound left by the sting. To my surprise there a no traces of a infection or anything similiar, only a clean little hole through which I can see my blood flowing as if ignoring the existence of it. My ability must be blood magic or something similar and as far as I can remember such ability user always had the traits of a high lifesteal and regeneration as if living through the blood itself. If I can utilize similar traits from this ability I should be able to survive in this world. How would a heal work? I concentrate on the blood in my body which enables me to feel a sort of distortion in my right foot and when I concentrate on this area I can feel the little hole as if someone left a window open while you are driving 100 km/h with your car. I decide to shut it with a little blood and handle it like molten metal which I mold in its place. I use more and more force on it as if I were pressing every thing which can’t play the role of flesh out of it.
A scar is now where the hole was It was more than exhausting for such a result and not even usable on bigger wounds but with training I see there some potential. I think an hour or two passed but when there is no other clock than the sky time somehow becomes meaningless or takes other sizes than minutes and hours. Finished with the tests of my body and ability looking for some remaining damage or any other changes I muster a pair of shadows in the distance. Its clear they are heading towards me and experiencing on my own skin how hard it is here to find something to eat or drink I know what their aim is.
In a matter of seconds as if they know they were spotted I am attacked by two pantherlike shadows. Even with the bright moonlight they are hard to describe because their fur is changing between absolute darkness and a slight brightened shadow letting the beasts masks themselve in the moonlight. I use my boxing stance to escape the deadly claws aiming at me making little faints aimed at their faces to make them lose their cool and win maybe some time. Realizing random attacks seem to be ineffective they start to circle me but they keep a distance of few meters slightly wary of my to them unknown punches but also to use their leaps to full advantage.
[If I am honored to die again I will take one of you with me!]
I snarl at them enraged with the new possibility of a second death which presents itself after I only barely survived my second life threatening situation.
Now provoked the bigger Beast jumps at me with a wide open jaw big enough to eat a half pig with one bite. I crouch and throw my stone lying besides me aiming at his palate with the hope to get it into his windpipe and dodge with a jump to my right only to turn towards the now breathless acting beast. Good sometimes luck shows his face. The other monster uses the shifted attention and tries to rip me with daggerlike claws. As the saying goes the center of a sturm is the safest I jump on the stille distracted breathless beast making the claws rip into his shocked comrade. Taking his chance to spit the stone out I let the beast suffer in chokehold using my legs while I pull on the Horns I find on this head. The Beasts becomes frantic as it make attempts to shake my off but without air there is only enough strength in him to let me guide him into his comrade.
After a minute it loses consciousness but before he get some good hits into the smaller beats making it ignore the damage he does to his kind while he tries to kill me. Now with the seeming dead brethren the smaller monster enrages and without the wild movements keeping him at bay it makes a leap aiming his fangs at my head. As I roll behind the body it ends up attempting to follow my course with its fangs deep in the flesh of the now really dying partner. I see in his shocked eyes how it only now realised through the pulse of the blood he was still alive and now panics because it doesn’t know how it can free itself without endangering him, but it is too late. I use the shock of the beast and its short defenseless to run on top of it and start to choke him taking the rest of the air he was able to get through his nose. To my surprise the beasts doesn’t attempt to defend itself and dies slowly by my hands unable to chose the life of his brethren or his own survival.
After both are unconscious I continue to choke the smaller beast waiting, while losing his Jaw enough to let the other one bleed out. Few minutes pass and the hearts of the losers stop their beat before I making them lose their last sound and with it their life, but my heart didn’t stop. A despairing sound reaches my ears and lets my body shiver with energy as if every part of my body was ready to give its all to survive, its clear my hearts mimics their last beats. Instinkt, adrenalin, empathy I can’t really describe the reason for my reaction but being used to it I wait for me to calm down. But while I try to calm down a new sensation enters my body. I feel a energy entering and spreading like a wave letting me feel how my power multiplies. I realize that is how a level up must be feeling and let my mind be overtaken with excitement as well a feeling of bliss and pride.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
To let my stocked up energy out I make a few punches into nothingness and after taking my breathing under control, I relax. Similar to the after fight scenes from movies light starts to spread from the horizon bathing my surrounding area in a strong white, if the sunrays were breaking through thick clouds the scene would be even better. With the goal to collect as much useful knowledge on this world as I can I decide to examine the now no longer hidden bodys. The beasts size can be compared to bulls but their bodies resemble panthers with a bigger sized skull than you usually find. The bigger beast wears something similar to a mane while a pair of malicious horn resembling the horns of a goat stick through it. Inspecting the head of the smaller beast on which is only a slight trace of a mane you can see the horns on both of them are still growing. The maned beast is a male while the other one seems to be female.
[Devil Cats would be a good name for such a species. I will remember you also as my first breakfast in this world … ]
I know it was for the most part to my luck that I am now the one standing but none the less a sense of pride fills me as I how dangerous the beast were even as cubs. Seeing the still warm blood flowing out my hunger and thirst are torturing me with anticipation for the warm, bloody the air with an thick scent filling delicacy. My last reserves of water are turning faster into spit than I can swallow it letting bits of it fall to the earth, control yourself, think. I muster all my willpower to resist my urges and go to the spilled blood covering the earth in a red sheen. Stopping myself from leaping into the fresh meat before me and concentrate on my blood magic. I make an attempt to force a little amount of my blood out of my hand. With megear pain a little string of Bloods starts to go out of my Hand but it doesn’t even produce a wound as if it was sidling between the cells of my body without damaging them. With the hands as my source of blood the control seems easier to me but it could be wishful thinking. In the moment my blood touches the still warm alien liquid I can feel a resistance as if you would try to bite through a shell. I ignore the raising pain and make multiple paths leading to the pool of blood. An new indescribable feeling spreads in me as if I were breaking something apart and assembling it into myself. I feel as if a until now unknown thirst was quenched when my limb takes new parts in strengthening itself. With every new drop of blood I can enslave the pain shrinks and it becomes easier to take hold onto the next one. I lose myself in this new feeling as if I were absorbing life itself and ignore the burning pain. But after a while the blood finds no more place in my body which now maybe holds 12 liters making every vein on my body visible and letting my heart overwork. There must be a way, a solution. I concentrate more on the power I feel rushing in them than the blood imaging the blood as a medium for the life energy and not as the energy itself. The energy feels like thousands of electrical wires resting within mud. To absorb such a wire it takes minutes and I feel as I were electrified even with the pain a pleasing feeling of even stronger blood after that.
Now able to sense the energy I feel how she slowly fades away and the though to lose the chance to get stronger makes me panic and greedy. I ignore my common sense and take hold on every wire I can feel even using the second corpse. A flash combining from both body fires into me making me stumble and let loose control over my limbs forcing me to my knees. A whirlwind of energy rages within my whole body which I can barely hold in and stopping it from the destruction of my second life. Red light escapes from parts of my body when pieces of this energy clash with each other letting me shiver in pain. Slowly I rip the storm apart and can feel how the broken pieces become a part of me. Faster, preciser, harder. With every piece I get the storm becomes easier to control and destroy as if were using his power slowly against him. Even so hours passed again before I could realize it, beeing forced to concentrate on my inner struggles.
After my experiment I start to examine the corpses forcing my dulled mind to further work. The bodies dried up without any sign of live as if time took its toll stealing every last bit of their life. The flesh crumbles under the slight wind and turns into a blackish dust fanishing in the thin air. The skin now seems like leather and the hair with its softness gone resembles thin needles made out of bones or iron with their now deep black color. With their life gone the materials are worser than gained with the appropriate crafts but far better than what I could manage to get from the bodies. The holes in the skin can be ignored thanks to the size of the leather compared to the damaged amount.
While I think about the possible use of the fresh gained resources I notice my thirst and hunger don’t seem to be a need anymore. The body no longer suffering under these emotions feels lighter and stronger in other words better, I think now there may be a chance to survive. But there is also this new power source within me. This life, this blood, how can I use it?
There is no more time for such questions as I am aware my prey were mere cubs, which probably were lost by their parents. I know only death waits for me when I meet the adult version of such a Beast. I take the skin with the mane and use it to shield my body from the sun and take the head as a helm making it a memento of my first victory in this world. Raising the skull I let the flesh and organs crumble making their trace disappear in the air in a dark red dust. I take also the two meter long still flexible tail which should stay so as long the gristle doesn’t dry up. Satisfied with my equipment and now resembling a wild beast myself I make my way to leave this place hoping there will be no scent leading to me.
With a strange relaxing feeling of I gain from the hardened skin protecting me and the helm protecting me from the outer world I drop my wariness and let myself forget the worries about food and water for moment. The sun lightens the scenery slowly shooing the last shadows away heating my armor slightly up but protected from the direct contact with the sunlight I can even enjoy this warmth. I think when I find water in the next days I should be able to grow resistant against the heat which now makes me far less suffer than the day before. Without the concerns forcing me into discipline and self control a until now unseen beauty of this worlds day spreads before me.
The only as barren and grey viewed ground has actually little red spots scattered on his surface as if a short rain would carve himself into the earth for an eternity. On these red patches of earth a twisted kind of tree can be seen they appear to be made out of stone but the touch of such plant shows me how deep the roots of it go but when I try to trace the life energy of the plant I feel how something tries so suck me dry as if were mere nourishment. I let the plant immediately go and force the energy trying to leave me back. I am not foolish enough to fight with my little knowledge against the only plant surviving this area with roots going deeper than any plant I know. There also mysterious perfect round holes spread through the wastelands the size warring between basketballs and trampoline leaving me with an eerie feeling when I only think about going near such a potential source of danger.
An old habit makes me think about time again I think maybe a few hours passed since my fight but slowly I think my time sense could be more confused than I thought. The day could have more a less than 24 hours render my biological clock useless. After a while missing any new sights I decide to train with my new power while I walk making an orb the size of a tennis ball and try forming him into different simple shapes varying between strength and agility I use. Some time passes and I start forming weapons with my blood thinking about learning how to smith but a new creature greats my eyes distracting me from my trail of thoughts.
I see a shelled creature digging a hole with two shovellike claws as if you would skall the arms of a dredger down. It resembles a mix between a armadillo and a mole, on its head is a shark fin shaped horn on its head which seems more like a weapon than a tool making him a foe I don’t want needlessly anger. The more creatures I see the more I realise there will be no chance for me to encounter an simple lvl 1 monster like smile or a harmless rabbit. I would even welcome I fight with a bear if it would be a chance to spare from more devil cats or other dangerous creatures. I think it could be also dimwitted demanding animals from earth and compare this world design with an simple Rpg a person usually plays. But honestly how I am supposed to level up if there would be a stable food and water source I could train to even the level gap but now I am forced to struggle against my weaknesses and the needs of my body. My Level may multiplied thanks to my victory but as long I am unable to destroy a bolder with my fists or to be as fast as an ostrich there is no chance for a victory as long as I don’t get to fight against more unexperienced cubs whelps or other monster children or babies. The situation is screaming “prolonged death” and there is still the danger of being tracked down by the parents of my victims. I am also pretty sure there a many carnivores around me but because no one approached me yet I think the devil cats are on top of the food chain in this area a new thing to like about my armor.
A new thoughts about life energy passes my mind. Can be things enliven with it? I stop my now painless Blood Manipulation and absorbing the blood back I start to extract only the life energy. Pain of the drained life makes me suffer but I make sure to get the amount a dog would have. A whirling ball of the size of a basketball is levitating before me. I split my concentration patching the holes my drain left hampering the pain and controlling the power of life before me. But the control of only the power is too raw too wild for me I can’t do anything else with it than absorbing it or letting it go rampage outside of me hurting my mind or letting it go rampage inside harming my body. I eat the energy again a feat far easier than controlling it outside of my body of splitting it from the rest of my energy. I decided to use my blood again now an easy practice and force it into the skin and skull sheltering me. I copy a nerve system with my blood letting it spread through the equipment, strengthening it stimulating it and pumping it as if I was a heart. The life wires I feel within it I force slowly part by part into the leather into the bone into the tail. I walk now slower refining my work and more if not for success for the practice I can gain from it. An new strange presence breaks my concentration it feels as if the body I created becomes possessed by another being and now I am forced to struggle who will be in control of the body I created. I let a piece of my life energy go rampage. The struggle is won my equipment becomes colder and I don’t feel only now the body created through me but also a soul being chained by it. I stop in my tracks and let a cry in my mind out aiming at the blood bound to me. An attempt to communicate with the new being.
Name yourself, chained one.
A broken voice responds remaining a broken tool or the random signals you get from a broken radio.
... No … name
Did you life before?
The sound becomes clearer as if his mind was constructing while he talks with me.
A death … yes … hunger and pain … a stray … a human? … … no … a beggar … a dog...
His voice doesn’t stop ringing in my head but his message is only blank, I decide to pain the beeing with my bond and hurry this talk.
I have no need for your past. I am the master of the body and the prison you are now in. As well is my very existence the chain forcing you to live. I am in a dire situation right now and need any help I can get and you will became my help. The ability I used to lure you I don’t know myself and so I don’t know what use you have. But be warned I know how to cause pain or limit your power. Do you understand?
The voice became clear enough to distinguish and sounds a little old but also not human. I will label his past live as the live of a stray dog as long there won’t be something else to choose.
Yes, master?
I feel now a aura surrounding me cooling the air and lessen the weight of the equipment. The skull doesn’t rest on my shoulders anymore but is covering my head and making slight movements which I stop with a little force on the body when they disturb my view. I can feel a slight pull on the tail I have in my hand making me think how to handle this thing.
Stop it.
The slight pull stops.
It seems we still need to talk.
Talking still difficult, sorry , master.
I don’t know the details but it seems you got now a bigger mind capacity than in your past life and accustoming may take time. You need a name and I will name you rex. Now that you got a name what do you want with the tail?
Familiar, makes strong, master.
I don’t have something against that wish but a reason could put you in favor.
Wish of blood. I use. You own. Master.
My blood doesn’t only provide life but also something like a basic software or better said a starting point for creatures I make.
Good answer, use the tail and also use this. But don’t forget you will be my armor and weapon. Aim to become better in these rolls
I let go of the tail which makes its way to my back and try also to split a new amount of energy. With the energy in the blood I provided it should be roughly the amount which one the cubs had. As I don’t know its use yet and my blood seems more valuable at the moment the thing which protects me from loosing it should be stronger. Again only with pain the act success and now with blood as medium I am able to strengthen my tool. It spreads like an electric current through a net made out of wires making the being now able to play with this power. Why it doesn’t work on me I don’t know but it could be I still can’t control it enough. I could think of various possibilities but the result will not change with them.
More strength and life. Thank you master.
I give only a slight nod in response mentally tired. While I walk I can feel how the aura around me becomes stronger, livelier. The skull starts slowly to change and I can feel how the whole body is slowly adjusting to its new owner will but also my body.
A little dust cloud moves in the distance at which peak you can see a group of birds running in the direction I came from.
They are dangerous, master.
I know here is everything dangerous.
Their body resembled that of an dodo and the head and feathers were that of an eagle while the lower halves were that of an ostrich. But I could also be wrong because the distance was about 4 km and they were moving pretty fast. I must say I am surprising myself how good my eyes in the game are usually I am forced to wear glasses but it seems [Second Chance] makes such things needless. And when we are talking about ingame features I don’t feel any need to sleep only some mental exhaustion but nothing a break couldn’t help against.
The land was the whole time flat like a dried up ocean but after a three days journey there could be finally a chance to get an overview of this area without mentioning the mountain which I try to dodge. Yes, before me is a wonderful 15 m high hill with which help I could detect signs of civilization or a water source both would be satisfying enough. My instinct tells me every irregularity in this environment is danger and that is reasonable enough for me. I decide to make my way around the hill.
Master danger.
I know, probably a giant monster maybe an hedgehog, a turtle or something similar.[/i]
It is easy to tell this area is out of my league and far beyond my level. I think it would be only wise to avoid unnecessary danger before I can get some more information and maybe the [CC]. Also I should use any opportunity to become stronger.
During my attempt to avoid the hill with a distance of some hundred of meters. I could swear it moved.
Did it move?
It moved, master.
Good, I am still as sane as a person talking with a carpet can be. A distraction occurs something else appears in the far distance. I perceive it as a black figure coming from the direction I aim for. But the Black spot seems to became bigger and bigger, a 400 km/h fast Truck could only compare to the sight. I would love to give a run for me live a try but if this thing aims at me there is no way for me to flee.
Get Ready. I may die but you should survive and find my second body. If you resist it will only unnecessary lengthen my efforts to find you but the result will stay the same. I hope you aim at a good relationship.
Yes dangerous, master will die, but if master comes back, I will help. I will serve. But will master feed, will master praise? I will be happy.
Your master will try to become for you a good master. Cruel in need and kind by heart.
I am moved by the faith i receive from the being which I created and now is solely relying on me as his guide, his teacher and as his master. Now forced myself to trust rex my mind is full of mixed feelings but I know there is no other way for me to avoid a new start from nill. The first time in my life I am truly unable to resist pain to keep myself sane my mind becomes blank filled with screams I am unable to utter.
Master! Master! Master! Master! Master! Master! …
Instincts and my last will take over my body as I am unable to focus. I ripped nearly my whole life force out but this time the act was more extreme if my other uses of the power were to compare it would be comparing a surgical intervention cutting out an organ with a beast ripping you apart to get access to it. The pain doesn’t stop but my mind using the greatest part of the remaining energy fill his blankness. The rest of my power I use to force the energy into the armor.
Eat it! Run!
Master … I will oblige.
The armor undresses me and stands a moment before me before it leaves with a tremendous speed. So a ferocious wolf in a dog costume? Pained no longer able to distinguish the senses my body receives I still decided to give a slight chuckle to the armor which can no longer been seen. It formed a skeleton and the body was no longer that of a panther but it seemed to be a wolf or better said a dire dog surrounded by a strong red aura which burned like a flame from his eye sockets his feet while the black fur turned into a deep red and his tail splitted into three one made out of fur and two made of bones and the red aura surrounding them. But the most malicious part about him are his red coated claws as if bathed in blood which resemble no longer simple daggers but tolls destinated to slice everything in their path as well as his fangs which are big enough to make his snout slightly bulged as if acting as a warning for others.
Here I stand, out of breath, out of live and out of ideas waiting for my death. The worst part is I know I will soon understand why so many beasts on my way were fleeing the scene. Again I am awaiting death and now I am even more pained than in my stomach acid death and forced to collect myself enough to gain a minimum control of my body. Sooner than I hoped a shadow is casted over me and feeling the enormous murder intent strong enough to drive every live loving person into despair. I would also give in to this threat but I no longer posses the power for such extragated acts. The Beast is now behind me and I don’t posses the wish to face it as well as the power.
[As I can assume only death awaits me could I enjoy the only shadow in this area a little longer?]
I speak with a strained voice. I am trying to mock him or stalling time? I don’t know. But the goal is the same, a fast death.
[You not only refuse to crawl and plea on the ground in my presence but also stay still and make a request.]
I am less surprised than I thought I would be about the given answer. Which is voiced out in a snarling voice accompanied with a hiss in a deep intimidating tone. Because I don’t react a loud ear deafening roar is let loose on me. The roar soaks my back in his salvia but dying I am more refreshed than disgusted. I see how the Beast gives it all in an attempt to contain his rage which seems coming more from his hurted pride than the death of his children. I assume he wants to torture me before he lets me die but in all honesty my life is burning down like a withered tree so he may not even get the chance to kill me.
[Face me human!]
A voiced roar sprinkles me with spit, again. Now too curious about the adult form of a devil cat I turn in his direction cutting my life span in half. Before me stands a roughly 18 m tall beast which wouldn’t even need his fangs or claws to kill me, a single hit would kill me even in my best form. The fur is black as coal but firm as steel worthy of a king. The Horns are truly devilish twisted and thorned and big enough to impale most of the whales from earth. The peaks of the horns aim at each other and look glowing hot iron which slowly turns from white into red and then into the black of the horns. I more than sure that he posses a spell which use the horns as a kind of katalysator. There is also a pair of canine tooths easily reaching two meters in size and sharp enough to intimidate every opponent. I remember the King-class monsters from mangas and fiction and I am slightly disappointed with the lack of scars or wounds on his body but thinking about it logical it is also a proof for his strength and skills.
[You bath in my blood killing my children and dare to face me while mocking me. Maybe you want to tell me you also would like to feed on my flesh?]
There is no more need for discussion death is now truly near I can feel my slow fall. But none the less I force a response from my body slowly embracing darkness again.
[As I see there is nothing you expect me to say, could you kill me already.]
A laugh fills the air and fire lights up in his eyes.
[Puny human, you wish a quick painless death I will torment you through days and weeks and when I broke not only your body but your very soul I will feed on you while I keep you to the last moment alive.]
I smile, I can smile because it is too late and I am sure even you can’t force the death to live. I fall to earth now lacking the strength to stand and slowly becoming unable to breath.
[What are you doing! Do you really think you can escape my clutches?]
I can see him something casting, probably a healing spell but it doesn’t show or have any effect on me. My sight gives now also in and my body becomes slowly numb I can feel the last bits of my life burning away. I play with the last bits as if they were fireflies until I feel only my consciousness fading faster and faster away. But before my last sense gives in I hear the beast leaning over me.
Again I am engulfed in darkness. A void existence but it seems there is more to it, I can feel live and I can feel death. Out of nothing a pair of white slim hands appears. But even before they try to touch me I get immediately a grotesque feeling as if the owner was a mad corpse straight from a Horror movie. I try to move but get only to feel the chains binding me. A hand touches slowly reaches for my Breast as if it were enjoying the act itself but only with the touch of the fingertip a frightening cold spreads over my body. Rage, fear and madness fills me making me burn strong enough to overcome the cold and strong enough to burn the chains. While I feel again a pull on myself a whisper coming from every direction enters my ear.
[... J-- ...]
My heart is beating so strong I even wonder if it attempts to leave my breast. The sick mix of feelings still lingers on my mind leaving me in a slightly confused state. I ignore the sickness I feel from my stomach and force my way out of earth to get fresh air for my strained mind and the slight stiff body. Now only with the wish to relax I use the only word promising some rest for the tired soul.
[Home.]
As if were falling through the world-an anchor chained to my back- the scenery changes into a blur and slowly vanishes behind a blinding white. With the feeling as if I fall in my dream I wake up on my bed. The hearts races and slight sweat slowly appears on my body cooling my heating up body down.
No longer burdened with the dangers of the wastelands and the inhuman heat I try to determine the meaning of the message from the void. But the sound was again incomprehensible as if something was blocking it changing the words into misshaped noise. In control of myself again I start to examine my surroundings. Nothing changed before I used the command, only the time passed is visible with night showing herself outside the window. Nor headgear nor any other equipment was used for the “game”, only the package still lying on the Floor is the only evidence it wasn't all a dream a disillusion. I examine it but there is nothing not even and address only the carton of the package and the tape which was closing it. My body feels slightly stiff as I stand I take look on my watch only four hours passed while I spent almost two days in [Second Chance] the first thought would be the the game has a time ratio one to ten but now I feel unable to treat the world I experienced as only a game. With the appearance of death bringing some of my memories of her back on the surface the game earned the right not to be taken lightly. The other explanation is also the possibility there are different time flows between our worlds.
I touch my heart and feel a shiver as if the cold feeling did only now disappear. something I forgot something from my childhood a deep burned memory crawls slowly from the depths of my mind into the light. Is it from my past or was it a dream I don’t know since I lost a year of my time my memories seem to mix reality with fiction. My mind can be now compared to library filled with books but they don’t have any title and are always written from the same perspective while every information mentioning a name or making a distinguish between a dream and reality is omitted. And now such an old book found its way towards my hands teasing my curiosity and tempting me to read it and lose myself in the words playing with my mind.
~
“I swear death is here. I can see her, she stands here.”
The only response I get is a heartfelt laugh. My Mother looks at me amused sitting and drinking coffee and enjoying tee. Only now more frustrated than frightened I can see unknown people to me which seem to be our guest.
“It is late already you are probably tired and seeing things, go to sleep.”
I clench my fists. Frustration and Anger rise in me killen any signs of fear. I decide to stay silent and go back to my room ignoring the shadow lurking over me.
“You won’t go away, won’t you?”
The young woman hiding in the shadows shows herself in the corner. Her figure I can’t remember I was a kid not playing any mind to such details. All I know she was thins and wore a unnatural Black dress while her black hair had a light sheen highlighting the blackness of her hair which reminded my of my own deep black hair color.
“You seem beautiful but you won’t talk ? I know who you are but if want to kill me do in my sleep. I would prefer a peaceful death.”
A smile shows on her face good enough to charm most people of both genders but it was only irritating me. For me it was only a sign something will happen I could refer to as my defeat. She started to approach me closing in the distance she used as if she would measure it counting every centimeter. But with every step she starts so turn into shadow disappearing with time but when she try to touch me she explodes disappearing in every direction. The though I recited in my mind leves now my lips.
“Death not mine, far away be gone, speaking I am of every form, back away fearing my sign.”
The touch of iron covers my face for a moment, a strange sensation. I take a new look at the now void corner. My heart rate is calm but my body feels. The words which escaped my lips I seemed a rhyme mimicking spells used in various books. I wished for a mask a mirror to protect me forming a border between me and the world. Was that ----?
~
An headache hits me at the end of the memory as if another key to my questions is kept from me after I succeed to steal a mere glance at it. It burns every second I think about possible connections my mind feels as if being cooked in a mixer. I can’t anymore for today my soul is exhausted to withstand such straining tasks I will forget it for now. I may withstand a terrifying amount of pain in the last hours but when I can directly control the amount I suffer it is more difficult than I thought. I try to catch some rest with a little nap but feeling as if I were pumped full of caffeine I decide to lay down and relax my mind letting my thoughts roam in every direction.