To say that Jake had seen his fair share of unexplainable things since the day of the integration would have been a grave understatement. For starters, strange game-like screens kept appearing out of thin air, one of which was some sort of status screen that allowed him to level up like some sort of game character. Like that wasn’t enough, Jake had recently become some sort of cultivator, and he could now wield a mysterious power called spirit energy which could reinforce his body to superhuman heights. In comparison, Jake felt that all the other strange things that had happened to him since, like being chased by a giant wolf-like creature and finding a magic pond inside a glowing-mushroom-covered cave, weren’t even worth mentioning. All of these things felt so unreal that Jake had started to believe he’d witnessed enough mysteries for a lifetime, but as soon as Jake opened his eyes, he realized just how wrong he’d been.
Assaulted by the sunrays that had forced him to look to the ground for a little while, Jake had been instantly flabbergasted when he’d finally been able to take a sheepish look at the outside of the cave. Confusion was apparent on his face as he begrudgingly looked at the gigantic mountain range that stood in the distance, tall rocky peaks covered in pristine white that Jake knew was snow.
He could tell from a glance that the mountains were dozens of kilometers away, maybe even much farther, but even from that far they towered over the clouds and the landscape like behemoths. He’d never had the chance to see the famous Mount Everest before the world got integrated, but he’d seen pictures, and there was no doubt in Jake’s mind that Everest would have looked like nothing more than a hill in front of these titans.
Still in shock, he sat on the ground, looking at the mountains with his eyes wide and mouth agape for a full minute before he started breathing again, regaining his composure after a while. However, his calm expression was soon replaced with a puzzled look and furrowed brows.
The thing was that he had been right next to campus when the integration happened, and he’d barely travelled a kilometre since, thanks to the annoying pressure. Yet, he felt there was just no way he would’ve spent the last two months attending university without ever noticing the towering peaks on the horizon. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that it either meant that Jake had been teleported, or that the mountains had been put there. He was somewhat more confident in the latter guess, even though he had a hard time imagining anyone — or anything — dropping these cute little pebbles on the earth somehow, simply because the rest of his surroundings looked the same as they had been before the darkness fell, except for the mountain range of course. The enormous trees still stood all around him, displaying a wide range of warm colours going from bright red to vibrant gold. He was sure this was the same forest he’d found himself in back when the integration had happened, although he had to admit the trees seemed to have at least doubled in size since he’d entered the cave, and he couldn’t see the university’s campus in the distance, much less some of the townès taller buildings that were usually visible from a good distance away.
He suddenly thought back to the first screen he’d seen the morning of the integration, and he couldn’t help but frown as he thought of the implications.
“Landscape upgraded and randomized my a — ” He mumbled.
At the time, he hadn’t understood what the screen had meant by that, but after seeing the mountains on the horizon, he was pretty sure he had found his answer just now. He stood at the cave’s exit for what felt like a few minutes, mulling over everything in his head and trying to make sense of it the best he could.
After a few seconds, Jake finally decided to focus on recovering his spirit energy before anything else, and he was about to start doing exactly that when he caught something odd in the corner of his eye. In the sky, not one but two blazing suns shone on top of him, one of them a vibrant red and the other a piercing white, both of them at least twice as big as the one he’d been staring at for the last eighteen years.
The mountains, coupled with the fact that there were now two suns shining over his head was a lot to take in at once, and it took Jake a few seconds to start breathing again. It was hard for him to come to terms with the fact that, at the moment, there wasn’t much he could do about anything that was going on. For the thousandth time since the integration, Jake felt powerless and scared. Not only was he lacking the most basic information, but he also had no real way whatsoever to do anything about it. He could‘ve tried to go back to campus, even though it would probably have taken him the better part of the entire morning thanks to the pressure, but the fact that he couldn’t see any of the campus’ buildings from where he stood made him reconsider whether or not the campus was even really there anymore. Even if it had been there, Jake couldn’t help but think back to the first screen that had appeared during the integration, the one that mentioned the planet had been repopulated. While he’d only met the wolf so far, he couldn’t help but wonder what other kinds of creatures were possibly waiting for him on the way to campus.
In the end, he was alone. While Jake had never really been much of a team player, nor did he really ever have any friends to begin with, it truly was horrifying to realize that he was alone amidst the integration. If there was any real moment that friends could have come in handy, it was when his life had been transformed into a videogame and he was on his way to settle a grudge with a grizzly-sized wolf, he thought.
As he was right now, he doubted he’d stand a chance of surviving the exploration of the forest, even though a part of him wanted to risk it. He knew that the best thing to do for now was to make use of the pond to quickly gain enough strength to keep himself alive against the unknown dangers of this new world. Relunctantly, Jake decided to not venture too far away from the cave until he’d reached level ten, at least.
To do that, however, Jake first had to fill his stomach, and it was with renewed conviction that he set out in search of the wolf, intent on finally setting things straight with the beast. For a few minutes, Jake searched around the cave, with a visible look of incredulity on his face. He kept walking through the nearby forest for a few minutes, catching sight of very few animals he knew, and a lot he didn’t, and the same was true for the plants and trees that littered the forests he was in. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite find what he was looking for as every single animal he saw immediately bolted away the second they took notice of him.
It was finally just after having spent yet another few minutes recovering his lost spirit energy that Jake had finally caught sight of a dozen creatures lazily sunbathing on a giant rock some distance away, and he slowly made his way toward the giant boulder. The creatures could only be described as some sort of giant lizard, if not for the fact they were around the size of a pitbull but twice as large, and while they seemed wholly unimpressive he couldn’t help but get the feeling charging at them would be a bad idea.
Charging alone at a dozen gigantic lizards felt like something only someone extremely stupid would even think about doing, and even though Jake was thinking about doing exactly that at the moment, even he didn’t dare to act on his impulse.
Lost in thought, he finally looked at his right foot, or rather at the ground right next to it, and he carefully picked up a rock the size of a baseball. The small rock was heavy in his hand, and Jake hesitated for a second, doubtful he’d be able to throw this thing hard enough to reach the creatures. After all this time, he’d long noticed his body wasn’t the only thing that had gotten a lot heavier after the integration and felt like throwing that rock would be just as hard as throwing a 40-pound dumbbell. Finally, he shrugged and simply turned around to face the large rock, or rather the lizards that lazily stood on top of it. They were about 25 meters away from him, and he threw the rock with all the strength he could muster. His entire arm strained against the weight of the small rock, and he put the entire weight of his body into the throw, aiming at the beast that was the closest to him.
He was extremely surprised a second later to see that the rock had flown over 20 meters in the air before it bounced on the ground, then ricocheted all the way to the large rock and crashed on one of its sides, missing the lizards by a wide margin. The reptiles all froze at the sound of the impact, and they all turned their head in Jake’s direction at the same time, glaring at him with murder in their eyes. Suddenly, the lizard that was sitting the highest on top of the rock let out a screeching cry that almost sounded like tires drifting on asphalt, and every single dashed toward Jake, echoing the other lizard with a cry of their own. That’s when he knew he was done for.
Every lizard bolted down the rock with shocking speed, and Jake turned around on his heels and dashed back toward the cave. He kept running as he poured all the spirit energy he could muster into his body, propelling him forward with speed that shocked even himself. After only a minute, he reached the cave’s entrance and turned back to see if the creatures had followed him. From afar, he could see that only three of the creatures had given chase, but they were all approaching his position with surprising speed.
Instantly, he darted inside the cave and for almost a full minute, he ran as fast as he could. Suddenly, he stopped right in his tracks looking back at the tunnel, where he could see that only one of the creatures had followed him inside. The lizard was fast, but it was barely faster than the average human had been before the integration. As it made its way inside the tunnels, it displayed impressive agility for its stocky build.
It wasn’t long before the beast caught up to him, as he had already stopped running to instead turn around and face the creature. As it came closer, Jake could see the scaly, hard skin of the lizard reflect the blueish mushroom glow, as well as its pearly white teeth and claws that were now a light shade of glowing blue. The beast slowed its advance to a crawl around 3 meters away from where he stood, hissing and screeching, obviously trying to intimidate Jake.
Jake’s heart was simply hammering the insides of his chest by now, but he barely noticed it. There was but one thing going through his mind at the moment, only one single question that he kept asking himself over and over again: were lizards even edible?
He looked inward to see that his core was all but depleted by now, and he guessed he had less than a minute to take on the lizard until his core ran out and he became unable to move. He would either kill the lizard before that, or the lizard would eat him up once he stopped moving, simple as that. In the ring, there was only one rule, and it was the rule of the strong.
A chill crawled up Jake’s spine as he and the lizard exchanged murderous glances. He thought back for a moment to his recent bout with Mike Howard back on the day of the integration. He let out a small laugh as he thought back to the fight, remembering how he and Mike had stared at each other in a similar way back then.
The only difference was that this time, the stakes were much higher for him. He should have been scared, terrified even. He knew almost anybody would have been in this situation, even though the lizard felt a little lacking compared to the wolf he’d faced before, a small glance at the creature was enough for Jake to see the beast was by no means a usual lizard. Much like the wolf, it seem that this species of reptiles in particular was like an overhauled version of the one they’d had on earth. It was a humongous creature, and Jake was sure it must have weighed more than 250 pounds of pure muscle, scales and teeth. From afar, the lizard had looked nothing more than a dumb herbivore, but he now understood the creature was a predator.
A few instants passed without either of them moving an inch, until suddenly the beast pounced forward, its mouth wide open, clearly aiming at Jake’s throat. With a last-minute twist of his torso, Jake barely managed to avoid getting his throat shredded by the lizard’s teeth, stepping aside with all the dexterity he could display under the weight of the unknown pressure. Only an instant later, the beast was facing Jake again and began another assault, trying to chew a chunk out of Jake with its terrifying maw. But if there was one thing boxing had taught him, it was how to dodge. With impressive dexterity, Jake stepped and twisted and feinted, throwing back a dozen punches as he did until the beast stopped its assault, showing clear signs of fatigue. It would have been a great opportunity for Jake to retaliate, if not for the fact that he was at least twice as winded as the beast, and it didn’t take long for the reptile to restart its assault with renewed fervour.
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This time Jake held on for only a few seconds before the lizard pounced on him, with its maw still aiming at his head, and he tried dodging out of the way as best he could but he wasn’t able to avoid the blow completely as the lizard still took a bite out of his left shoulder. It hurt like hell.
However, Jake was not the same man he’d been at the time he’d faced the wolf. Ever since he’d found the spirit pond, he’d endured more pain in that short amount of time than he had ever before in his life, and only he knew how much his life had been anything but pain-free. He barely let out a groan as the beast’s teeth pierced into his articulation, tearing at his flesh and muscle, with even the bone cracking under the beast’s maw.
Jake dropped to his knees, the lizard still biting into his shoulder, clearly not willing to let go. His mind was blank and the pain seemed to be the only thing he could focus on at the moment, but in his panic, he still managed to look at the ground below and immediately find what he was looking for. He once more grabbed a sharp rock barely the size of a baseball, and he slammed it down the creature’s head that was still biting out of his shoulder. He kept hitting for an eternity, even after losing consciousness sometime after the sixth or seventh hit. Only this much wasn’t enough to stop him, however, and he kept on hitting until finally, the reptile fell to the ground with a loud thud, its head caved in and oozing out blood. As soon as he heard the creature’s corpse hit the rock, it was his turn to fall face-first on the ground, unconscious.
It was only sometime later that Jake woke up with the now familiar sensation of extreme weakness. His core was all but empty, and he was covered in his own blood as well as the reptile’s. His left arm hung limply to the side of his body, radiating with pain to the point where Jake wished he could go back to sleep. However, he knew what he needed to do right now, and he needed to do it fast. He had no idea just how long he’d been passed out in the tunnel, but he guessed it must not have been too long since the blood on his body was still very fresh, almost warm. He got back up in a sitting position, and he immediately started meditating again, hoping to refill his core enough to make it back to the cave before the other lizards found him, otherwise he’d be done for.
After having replenished his core just enough to attempt the trip back to the spirit pond, he painfully got back up to his feet, and he grabbed the lizard’s unmoving corpse by the tail with both hands, before he started walking backward farther inside the tunnel, pulling the reptile as well.
It took him an eternity to get back to the cave. With the state his body was in and the fact that he had to drag the lizard all the way back, he thought about leaving the body in the middle of the tunnel numerous times but gave up the idea every time thanks to the painful hunger that gnawed at his insides. He hadn’t eaten in a long time, and if he didn’t eat anything soon, he didn’t expect to survive long enough to ever fight again.
By the time he arrived next to the pond, he immediately let go of the reptile’s tail and sat down on the floor cross-legged. He was so exhausted he doubted whether or not he was still alive, and he even checked the pulse in his neck just to make sure he hadn’t died yet, relieved to feel the slow, feeble pulse of his heartbeat through his fingertips. He looked down at his left shoulder, amazed yet also terrified at the sight of the mangled flesh, and he realized that not only the beast had torn through his flesh and muscles like butter, but it had also shattered his collarbone and dislocated his shoulder. The pain was simply out of this world, yet he was still alive. Unlike his strength and dexterity, his vitality and even his endurance were a lot harder to quantify, and he had almost forgotten how much both of these attributes had improved since the integration. Normally, he would have never believed it to be possible to survive that kind of injury without receiving any medical attention, but he was now fairly confident he would end up okay, especially if his stats continued to climb according to their previous speed of improvement. After a while, he finally looked back down to the lizard with apparent anger visible in his eyes.
“You better pray you’re edible, lizard. Otherwise, I’ll personally hunt down your entire species to the last.” Jake mumbled between two groans.
He closed his eyes and focused on refilling his empty core for now. Finally, after a half hour, he was satisfied enough to stop his meditation. He grabbed a sharp rock not too far from where he stood, and he started to slam the rock down one of the lizard’s back legs repeatedly until it finally was set free from the rest of the body.
Jake grabbed the leg, hesitantly, and slowly brought the flesh to his nose to take a whiff. It didn’t smell bad, per se, but it also didn’t smell great. There was no way for him to make a fire and he sure as heck wouldn’t starve himself to death because he couldn’t stomach his meat a little too rare. Having made up his mind, he closed his eyes and aggressively bit down on the flesh of the thigh, tearing through the meat without too much of a problem.
The meat was hard, bland, and took forever to chew. But it wasn’t disgusting per se. All in all, it reminded him of white fish, although in this case, it was closer to unseasoned, raw, almost rotten white fish, he still ate the whole thigh before he let out a satisfied sigh, and finally he slowly lay on his right side, which was now the only comfortable position he’d be able to sleep in thanks to the wounds in his back and shoulder.
From his lying position, in looked to the side where the reptile’s corpse lay, then to his left shoulder. He couldn’t fight the smile that made its way onto his face when he thought back to the way he killed the lizard. He’d lost the use of his entire left arm in exchange for his very first meal, but right now he was content. It was a weird feeling to be having in this new world, and he’d been thinking about the subject a lot recently. He hadn’t showered, eaten, or slept on anything other than solid rock since the integration. He had yet to speak to anyone in so long he was scared he’d forget how to speak, and every day was yet another struggle for survival. Hell, he didn’t even know how much time he’d spent down here. He thought it had only been a few days, but it coull’ve been more than a week for all he knew.
Deep down, he knew he should be hating every second of it, yet he found himself content. He had spent the recent years training in hopes of one day fighting for a living, hoping to strike it big on the professional scene once he graduated. His goal had always been to fight for a living, as it was not only the only thing he seemed even remotely talented at, it was also the thing he enjoyed most. Still, up until now fighting for a living had meant a totally different thing than it did now.
It was hard to put a finger on the exact way he felt at the moment, but somehow Jake found himself glad the integration happened. He had spent the entire time since the integration training as a way to cope and push his fears aside, yet he realized at this instant that the fear was gone. It had been replaced by a sense of purpose, and he couldn’t help but think, that maybe this new world wasn’t so bad after all.
The Coliseum, Kingdom of the Everlasting Empire, Sector 183.
Noelle Firesworn stood in a sea of fiery red flames as the clamours and shouts of the crowd thundered all around her. She could barely hear the sound of the stadium announcer echoing inside the coliseum, drowned out by the sound of her own flames turning the arena to ashes.
“AND THERE IT IS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN” The announcer shouted, his voice full of excitement and passion.
“Noelle Firesworn secures her 22nd consecutive victory in the 71st arena against none other than Orgnak Greg’or’ark HIMSELF” The announcer continued.
Noelle looked in the distance around a few dozen meters in front of her, where a humongous orc, at least two times taller and three times larger than she was lay on the ground, the only sign of him still being alive being his giant green belly rising and lowering with every ragged breath.
“I can’t believe it!!! Orgnak, a humongous Orc was defeated in less time than it takes to say it, burned by Miss Firesworn’s flames without even landing a single strike!” He followed, still as energetic as he had been since the sudden ending of the match.
“As of right now, Miss Firesworn has climbed to the 9th spot of the extremely disputed 71st Arena, granting her the opportunity of challenging the current reigning champion of her category!” The announcer declared, enthusiastically, before speaking up again.
“If she wins this match, she’ll be able to ascend to the 70th Arena, and I have no doubt she’ll be able to cause quite the commotion over there too, even though she’s still a middle-stage mortal cultivator!” The announcer added.
After the announcer had formally declared her the winner of the match, the girl swiftly made her way to the giant metal door she knew would lead her right back to the exit.
She had been fighting in The Coliseum for almost a year now, and she had grown familiar with the planet's labyrinthian design. Except for some of the top arenas, as well as the richest parts of the planet which all stood above ground, The Coliseum‘s main population mostly lived below ground in a maze-like fashion across underground cities that stretched through entire continents. Rumours even went as far as to claim underground mazes covered the entire planet, although they were most likely an exaggeration.
After a few dozen minutes of walking among the dark tunnels using her interactive map, Noelle was now back in front of the tunnel where her quarters were situated, and she hurriedly stepped through her door after activating the scripted lock with a small trickle of her spirit energy. Her next match was scheduled around three hours from now, but as always, she still made a point to come back home between matches in order to cultivate.
As soon as she opened the door, she was met with the familiar two-bedroom apartment she had lived in for the last 3 months. Living in that small apartment all by herself had required a lot of getting used to for someone who had until only a year ago lived inside the fanciest of palaces, with a plethora of servants at her disposal and access to the best teachers in the kingdom. However, this one apartment was still leagues above the last four she’d rented since coming to this planet and she had recently grown to like that small apartment more than any other mansion she had ever lived in, if only for the freedom and independence it granted her. Furthermore, although the apartment wasn’t cheap by any means, she refused to waste hours every day walking back and forth between the Arena and her apartment. She wasn’t exactly swimming in spirit coins ever since she had fled the clan, cutting her access to cultivation resources and coins, but it still felt necessary for her to maximize the small amount of time she had, not waste it on transport.
With a sigh, she closed the door behind her and made her way to the small kitchen that was located in the corner of the apartment, dug out of the stone itself — like the rest of her apartment — by dwarves, who were unsurprisingly the architects of the entire Coliseum, and had carved out the entire undergrounds out of the stone some handful of millennia ago.
She opened the pantry, before taking out a giant slab of meat she instantly devoured with appetite. Giant sandworms were far from a delicacy and simply saying that they were bad would be a grave understatement. However, they were extremely affordable and extremely nourishing even for a middle-level mortal grade meat. As one’s cultivation increased, their body’s need for nourishment also increased tremendously, requiring one to eat more and more with each advancement. However, higher-grade meals like spirit beasts’ meat could solve that problem, since they were a lot more nourishing than normal-grade food, but with it came a price increase that was just as sharp.
Noelle understood now just how hard being a cultivator without any background was, struggling to even afford something as basic as food, and she now looked back to all the food she had intentionally wasted growing up with visible disdain.
It was only after having gulped down the entire meal that she realized she wasn’t alone in her apartment, which caused her to instinctively draw on her spirit energy and materialize bright red balls of flames in each of her palms, ready to kill. Usually, she could count on her spirit sense to notice anyone getting close to her even with both her eyes closed, but as she saw the man step out of her only sofa, she realized she still couldn’t sense him, although she already knew why that was.
The man took a step forward, and Noelle immediately extinguished her flames as she recognized him. She barely had the chance to speak up, however, before the man beat her to it and spoke up first.
“I would’ve thought you’d have been happier to see me, my daughter.” The man said with a calm, composed voice.
She barely managed to let out a groan, followed by an uncomfortable smile that bespoke greatly of her growing discomfort. However, the man didn’t wait for her to answer before he spoke again.
“Is this rat hole the reason why you’ve turned your back on the clan and relinquished your position as the first successor to the matriarch, Noelle? The reason why you’ve abandoned me and the rest of your family, only to live like a beggar, having to fight tooth and nail for every spirit coin that lands in your purse?” The man snapped, his tone still calm but firm.
“A small price to pay for freedom” She muttered in answer, sharply.
“If you say so. Well, I’ve come here today to tell you that your mom has grown tired of your little rebellion, and has personally sent me here to take you back home. Now, you know your mom, and you also know how scary she gets once she’s mad, which means I have no choice but to bring you back as she requested, in the briefest delays.” He replied.
“I’m not coming back home.” She snapped, and vibrant flames appeared on the surface of her skin, enveloping her in a menacing aura of embers.
The man let out a small chuckle.
“Of course you are. I’ll let you stay here for three more months, if you aren’t home by that time I will personally come here and bring you back myself, before throwing you inside the spirit pond.” The man answered, his face and voice still as calm as ever before his entire body slowly started fading away, and after a few seconds, he was gone.
Still lost in thought, she reached inside her left pocket and took out a small metal token. On the back of the small octagon, words were engraved onto the metal: “Firesworn Residence”. She looked up from the metal trinket in her hand, her gaze landing on the nearest wall, visibly fuming in anger.
“If you can’t even be bothered to come in person instead of sending one of your scripted artifacts, you can forget about me ever coming home, old man.” She thought out loud.