Emptiness. That's the first thing I felt when I was born. The lack of beating where my heart should've been, the utter lack of that warm liquid flowing through my veins, the lack of real eyes to see, or a tongue to taste with. I even lacked the weight of bones in my body... I thought that being reborn again would be an amazing experience.. Yet all I could feel was cold... The emptiness..
Then there was something else. A small, distinct feeling I've grown very familiar with over my time in the Great War... What was it called again..? Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a long series of glowing white on black messages.
[You have been born into a new and unique Species! +20 stat points, Title
[You have been blessed by The System! One ability available when requirements are reached. All stats raised by 3 per level, +50 stat points]
[You are Born of an abundance of Mana Stones! As such, you gained the ability "Domain Lv. 1"]
[You have been reborn from another world, kept a majority of your memories! Title
[As an abomination of magic and nature, you have received the following curse (Randomized based on the cursed one); " Curse Of Gluttony"]
...
Fucking hell.. I should've guessed it by now, that this System was a thing after seeing those couple first messages.. Its just.. I can't believe it. Its crazy, yet here it is, right in front of me! Its just like those vague RPG memories I had as a kid, even like those little stories I would've read online occasionally.. But if that's the case.... 'Status?'
Name: N/A Alignment: Neutral Level: 1(0%) Title: Primordial (+) Race: Human-Chimera Hybrid Class: N/A Hp: 279/280 (Cursed) Mana: 400/400 Str: 10 Agi: 4 Dex: 6 End: 14 Luk: 1 Int: 20 Wis: 30 Stat Points: 90
Huh.. It looks a lot more basic than I thought. Perhaps the designer was lazy? Well, just makes it easier to understand I suppose. But wait.. Why is my health one point down, when I haven't even done anything yet!? Maybe its this cursed thing? Let's see what it says..
[Cursed: Curse of Gluttony- You have been cursed to feel hunger and the want to satisfy it. -10 health per hour. Requirements to satisfy; Eat to stay at Max HP for 24 hours, Wait a duration of a month, or Walk down the Path of Gluttony.]
That's.. A pretty bad Curse. Kinda expected, but still... At least its not immediately gonna kill me, but definitely something I wanna take out as soon as possible. I am willing to try and take it off via the first suggestion, mostly because I have too little information on this world. If I stay like this for a month, I may die due to this.. Same with Path of Gluttony. I have no idea what that even means, so I'll stick to the first.
However, a voice interuppted my thoughts this time. It was groaning constantly, and dry as if it hadn't had water in days. It was definitely male, but I don't think its human..
"Subject 88 has seemed to have awoken, and seems to be very calm about its situation. It hadn't made any noises since its awakening, although its clearly alive." The old voice, seemingly devoid of emotion, said in my direction. I heard the vague sound of him writing down something while he spoke..
I groaned loudly, and it sounded inhuman to my ears. Like a mix between a snaked hiss and a boars grunt.. This prompted the man to speak once more. "Ah! Its reacting to my voice it seems. That shows at least an animals level of intelligence." He spoke, as if it was nothing amazing. I heard his footsteps come closer and closer, before I felt a dull pang on my face. It didn't hurt, rather, it felt as if he hit me with a pillow. I could feel the momentum and force beiphind the hit, but it did no damage.
[-50 HP] ... Well, maybe a bit of damage... Damn, that was a hard hit. A few more of those and I'd be dead! The most terrifying part of that is that if I didnt know how much damage it did, I wouldnt have thought it was very serious... What the fuck is going on??
"Ah yes, it even has a good amount of Endurance it seems. Good. Time to give it a small field test to see how well it may interact with society... Then again, this poor subject is likely more blind than a bat. It'd probably be best to give it at least some way to see, due to its lack of eyes.." The man said, before I can feel something very thin pierce my neck, some sort of fluid- "Grant Skill, Echolocation."
[Gained new Ability; Echolocation- Able to see through the sounds you and others make.]
Wow! What a useful and completely vague description! Gotta love lazy Systems!
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Internally rolling my eyes at that, I hum lightly, despite my lack of tongue. Doing this allowed me to see things for the first time in this life, though it was more like seeing the white outlines of a black canvas... However, it was much better than the pitch black I was quickly getting unnerved by. I saw a small room full of tools, dissected bodies, papers, and many other typical things you'd expect from a. Mad Scientists lab. The most curious thing I saw however, was the Mad Scientist himself.
He was very tall, if he chose to stand up. He had long spiky hair with a lab coat, as well as what seemed to be some sort of small antenna at the left side of his head? He sat down on a rolling chair, before rolling over to me and grabbing my chains. My body crumpled immediately, not used to not having bones, and my body didnt seem able to move by itself. It was a tad annoying, considering how he dragged me with the chain that was connected to my neck, but I at least got my body to crawl soon after we left his one room house.. Somehow.
Crawling after him chained up like this was getting me pissed off. The amount of noises the forest made helped me see all around me, which was both an advantage and a distraction. An advantage cause I couldn't really get surprised by anything nearby (Of course, I was occasionally surprised by the monsters that sometimes came to my view), but it proved to be a distraction which caused me to slow down and get dragged some more via that evil chain..
Growling lightly, we soon stopped at the entrance of what seems to be a small village. The man looked at me, and gave me a vague smile... A smile I didn't like one bit. "Now, prove to me your worth by getting me some groceries, okay? Meanwhile, you can test this new drug I made that should help with your.. People skills." He said with an evil smirk.. Before I even had time to react, I was stabbed with another syringe, but this time, he didn't say anything. He didn't need to. After all, the message in front of me said it all...
[You have been affected by "Berserk". For 3 hours, you will feel all your negative emotions raised by 300%, in exchange for your stats raising x30.]
My head suddenly ached as I opened my mouth impossibly wide, the sudden rush of sadness, regret, anger, confusion, and other such emotions were raised beyond my comprehension. I looked around for that horrible and vicious man who created me, only to see he completely disappeared, leaving me with just my chains and my naked (albeit, humanoid monster-like physiology) body. I screamed out in rage, before I heard a scream in return.
I turn suddenly, faster than I ever thought possible, and looked directly at a young woman covered in armor. A town guard, armed with a spear and guarding the gate.. Right right, this was a town! A place where batches of meat come together for me to do with as I pleased.
I sensed her fear, her primal feeling of wanting to run away... Yet she didn't. All the better for me, I thought to myself licking my 'lips' with some long sticky tongue(?). I finally could remember what I felt earlier! The feeling I hadnt felt since before the war... I was absolutely Starving...
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POV- Village Elder
I've seen many things in my long life. I've seen Orcz try to take my village, I've seen pirates raid and rape my people, I've seen abominations occasionally come in only to be chased out, and I've seen adventurers even try and politically(or not so politically) take my village over.
Of course, The Orcz were slaughtered, providing us a feast on Orc meat. The pirates were raped and raided back, increasing our army, population, and morale. The abominations were never seen of again, hiding deep in Drownfog Forest. And the Adventurers? I got them into a political trap where they and their descendents shall forever protect and serve this village. Forever.
We were a decently powerful village, with vast resources and a coastal trading port. Of course, I got plenty of power built up for myself. I was a Elven blade master, on the path of the Spear. I was truly a respectable power in the region, even at my old age of 234. I chuckle to myself at the thought, before I suddenly hear screams outside.
A raid? It was nighttime, so it was certainly possible, yet who was stupid enough to try and raid us? I quickly out on my heavy armor, it feeling light despite of that, and grabbed my spear. "Get the men ready! We are under attack!" He yelled, before bursting outside with a torch. What he saw.. Was something he wouldn't forget anytime soon.
He saw the guts of men, women, and children lying about. Bodies half eaten, as their intestines were thrown about like it was some sick party. Some of the guard were even on the ground, their spears impaling them from their private areas, ending up sticking out their mouths or eyes... That was without mentioning how their armor, along with their bodies, had huge chunks bitten out of them. It was a sight so brutal, that he was too shocked to move for a moment.
But only for a moment.
Grimacing, he heard nearby screams and quickly ran to it with some of his speed, making it there quickly. Once he reached it, he quickly identified the creature that was causing all of this, fighting against some of his commanders head to head. It was a disturbing creature, having no eyes, looking human if not for its very long and sharp "teeth". The teeth were made of the same matter the creature was made of, and suddenly, it came to him what this was.
'An abomination'. He hasn't seen any of those in years, decades even. And this was the most violent of them all... But his intuition was trekking him something was up with this. Why would it suddenly attack for no reason? It didn't even seem to mind the multiple gashes on its body, which was highly unusual for a creature.. Unless it was deliberately sent here, and either ordered or drugged to attack this village.
This... Was a tremendous boon it seemed. One of the very few abominations wasn't willing to run due to the order. Because of this, it was possible to capture, even tame it. If it could be tamed.. Well, it was very likely that it could either be sold to the Egyptians for a high price, or able to defend the village. Win-Win.
He chuckled to himself as he walked over to the creature that was clearly losing. The casualties would hurt morale and even a bit of long term production, but it would be worth it. Keeping this thing here too long would be bad for morale, so selling it would be a good idea. The gold should make up the damages, food, adventurers, and supplies costs for years!
He lightly slapped the back of the creatures head, not even using an quarter of his power for this, before the creatures head slams to the ground and knocks it unconscious, its lack of eyes contrasting in a very morbid way with its pure white 'skin'. He looked around to see the damages, and sighed. He was getting too old for this crap.