I took my first step onto the field, small stone altars were placed around me in each cardinal direction. Each stone had a small engraving on it, I knew roughly what they said, but I still looked over them.
The Forest of Demise - Traveller, heed my warnings if you choose the forest of demise. The shadows within come to life to fight you, should you seek good fortune you must have an apt mind and capable reflexes. A small bunker seems to be within, I hope you can find your path there.
The Mountain of the Sky - Brave traveller, legends speak of the treasure at the top of this mountain. A small airstrip filled to the brim with supplies, nary a monster seems to be on the path to the top, so ye must fight be able to brave yourself to reach the end.
The Corrupted Ruins - Foolish traveller, cease before you enter. The living shall never be able to enter that accursed place, so unless ye want to join the legion of the dead you'd best back away.
The Meadows of Fortune - Newborn, should you be one wise enough to not stake your life on a foolish adventure, make your way here. A small town should supply your needs, return here supplied before you challenge anything.
Information Gained: The Forest of Demise has been added to your log-book.
Information Gained: The Mountain of the Sky has been added to your log-book.
Information Gained: The Corrupted Ruins has been added to your log-book.
Information Gained: The Meadows of Fortune has been added to your log-book.
As this was the tutorial, I could give myself a cursory head start by being as succesful as possible. I weighed my options, if I entered the meadows of fortune I could return with gear and be successful, or I could make do with what I had on me, my hands and feet. My choice was already predetermined however. I walk towards the forest sighing to myself.
I go over what I remember from the forest, low ranked shadowbeasts lived within, they were fairly weak, but had incredible ambushing time. Whilst their attacks weren't strong individually, their claws were laced with a deadly poison that killed within minutes. A small bunker containing gear was about a mile in, but more importantly was killing the stronger shadowbeasts within.
As I entered the forest more notifications appeared.
Intuition - you feel as though reward beckons you if you are to find the rumoured bunker.
Intuition - you feel as though killing the beasts may somehow strengthen you.
I was startled, intuition wasn't an ability that I had used before. Travel through time was a taboo, theories of it were found in many of the libraries in the world. I had read a book known as - The Chronicles of Albaeh. It was a legendary book that raised skill proficiencies of all sorts, as well as even increasing your raw stats. I was lucky enough to obtain one of the pages as a quest reward, yet on it contained only one whole passage.
The passage in my memory is blurry, but it spoke of two concepts. The sage Albaeh had travelled through time and had realized two things. Some of his memories of the future were still intact, and how even the tiniest different action drastically changed it. He spoke of the future as unaffected by fate. A concept which I am still barely able to grasp.
I walk through the forest aware of the tiniest noises, I felt myself slowing down slightly and grumbled. Status effects were an intrisic part of the game, they didn't show up in your status until your intelligence encompassed it. I was starting to feel the effects of fear; from the beasts.
I could feel the precense of a small pack around me, and finally I could feel it as one of the beasts pounced. I may not have been able to use any skills, but my basic combat training I still remembered. I threw an uppercut behind me and it hit the neck of the beast. The beast fell backwards as it suddenly died.
First Kill! Calculating strength: Naive Unknown Beast. Hiding surplus information - CQC added to passive skills. Awareness added to passive skills.
I had intended on hitting the best in the chin, to shatter it's skull. Luckily the neck was also a weakpoint, I picked up the body. I had no inventory so I just carried it on my shoulders, it weighed only a pound or so, as it was made of shadows.
After walking for a few minutes, the beasts tailing me suddenly dissapeared. They ran as if something... frightening was approaching. I glanced at my stamina, a low 20. I crouched on the ground and put the shadowbeasts body above me. Their skin had a slight ability to blend into the shadows.
I could feel the ground trembling below me, I didn't need to be perceptive to know that a large beast was coming. I subtly felt that if I moved I would be found. A beast on this scale might barely be killable if I had a weapon. However, with my measly stats, I had to hide to survive.
I sat in a state like that for an hour, in that time my stamina had refilled to max yet I didn't move a muscle.
Field Knowledge added to passive skills.
The danger I felt had subsided, and I moved my stiff muscles. The beasts carcass had been of great benefit so far, so I caried it with me. A small cave entrance laid ahead, inside the bunker was hidden. The cave itself was relatively harmless, but the bunker contained security to prevent people from stealing what was within.
The cave slightly glowed, as I walked in the luminous moss lined the way. I carefully stepped down, however I could tell the cave was empty. A short walk later a small door was there, mismatching the cave wall. The handle had been completely clawed off, so I simply pushed the door open. Stepping inside, to my left the staircase to the deeper parts of the bunker sat, but to my right were the living quarters. The walls were covered with dust, and pawprints offset the dusty floor. I took a right to scrounge the living quarters first. Any item would be good to pick up. There were 50 rooms to search through, but most of them were for civilians. I continued to the far back and entered the room of the lieutenant. When I had entered the first time, I was able to scrounge only the first floor, and nearly died on the second floor. I already knew that important goods were in the room of the liutenant. A small skeleton, decayed after hundreds of years were inside, however he held a small pitch black knife that was still pristinely clean. The skeleton was inhuman, with only one hand coming out of his stomach. I'd never discovered the identity of this alien, but the knife was necassary for me. I picked it up and a small system box appeared.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Extraordinary! You've received a soul bound weapon however it hasn't accepted you as it's master.
Unbound Blacksteel Dagger
Sharpness - 5
Durability - 7
Option: Can sever electrical signals.
While the stats were untelling, this dagger was a rarity. While the sharpness of 5 was weak in the universe, it was still strong enough to slice through steel as if it was paper. The rare option however was devestating. Against mechanical enemies, one cut can disable their prowess. In this base were some robots that were more powerful than me in everyway, yet this knife would allow me to clear it.
I put down the small shadowbeast that I carried with me, and I skinned it and cut out it's claws. While I was unable to make any clothes that would fit me, I could make some makeshift shoes to reduce my noise and a small bag. I wasn't able to tell how good the equipment I made, but it was better than what I had before.
I walked to the staircase and prepared myself. At the bottom of the stairs was a small security bot. It was designed to have only 1 hand, however it was extremely mobile. The robot noticed me and started to power on, but I had already stabbed it's midbody with my knife. The robot powered down, and I continued moving.
As I turned the corner more and more robots appeared. However each of them only had one arm, and it was a narrow hallway. A robot wheeled in and tried to punch me, and I quickly dodged and countered. I left it as two more appeared, the robots were too sturdy for me to damage it with any physical attacks, but I had managed to stab one before a quick fist almost hits me. I stab its hand and it's unable to attack, and it uselessly tries to ram into me. I finish it off.
Battle complete: Hiding surplus information - Basic Knife Use added to passive skills.
The small skill announcement was nice, but it didn't improve my skills. I continued walking down the hallway and there was simply another stairway down. There were no rooms to search, simply more staircases down. As I reached the second floor, a robot with two arms glared at me. While I expected an easy fight like before. It pounced at me with an extreme speed, it threw its arms down and left a small dent where I was standing just a few seconds before. Had I not reacted fast enough I would've died. I quickly pounced and stabbed my dagger at one of his arms. As it couldn't use it it reached out with his other arm, I slid under and slashed it's midsection and it finally shut down. While the battle was dangerous, I still wasn't putting my life on the line.
The layout of the bunker was still confusing, at each floor the number of arms simply increased. A small speed increase happened for the robots as well. However each battle was monumentally more difficult. As I was prepared I was still undamaged. As I reached the staircase on the fifth floor, I stared down below.
Intuition - You feel as though a deadly enemy is ahead. Do proceed with caution.
The intuition confirmed my suspicions a deadly robot lay ahead, and probably the end of the bunker. While the danger wasn't on the level of the beast in the forest, I could tell a normal person would need more than just a dagger to defeat the bot.
The sad reality was, in my body I was just a normal person. So I had to take a risk, I took the dagger and nipped some blood off my arm. As the blood slid onto the blade I could sense it absorb the blood. What had before been a normal dagger now seemed like a blood sucking demon. I sent my mind into the dagger, and it accepted me.
Bloodsteel daggers test: Started - Difficulty: Lunatic
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Shadowbeast - A rare monster that is made out of pure shadow. The beast spends its life halfway between the shadow realm and reality, never able to step in both. Due to this it contains an extremely high level of stealth, and is extremely hard to detect. The poison it secrets is not poison, but actually devours their shadow the effects of that are better unknown.
Shadowbeast packleader - While a single shadowbeast may be deadly - a pack is hundreds of times more dangerous. The packs precense generates fear, a status affect in an area around me.
Armed ik'luth Robot - in the ik'luth society, arms were a symbol of status, in this case power. Each arm increases the robots level or fighting capacity by 100%. A 1 armed robot is around the strength of a grown man. While a 5 armed bot is 5x as strong in every aspect. However, all of the strength of the robot lies in the arms itself. And they can be created out of any material, even common steel.
CQC (close quarters combat) rankless - A basic skill showing that you understand how to kill an enemy in close proximity.
Awareness bronze rank 1 - A rare skill showing that you understand how to discover an enemy from their presence on the surroundings.
Field knowledge rankless - A basic skill showing that you can use the area around you to benefit you.
Dagger mastery bronze ranked 1 - A rare skill showing that you are able to dextrously control a dagger.