Brock

I was pleased with my new piece of armor, but what I was more interested in was the body upgrade token. All of ours had a different attribute, Layton’s even had charisma. Mine was strength. Just what did that mean? Would I suddenly be stronger by a large margin? Would I get more stat points in strength? Or maybe would my entire body be remade to become the strongest it could be, like Drake's forms.

The last one seemed the most unlikely but with the system, who knew. The system had done some pretty unpredictable things. Mostly, sending us off to a world without consent and dumping us in nightmare mode, all good things.

I picked up the token and rolled it in my hands looking at it. On one side was a picture of a flexing arm with a lot of muscle and on the other side was another flexing arm. This one was just… skinner, and weaker and just less muscular than the other one. I must be trying to give me a hint. But what?

I grabbed it tightly in my fist and breathed out, it was now or never. I raised it above my head and shouted “Activate!” at the stars. A beam of pure mana rushed out of it and suddenly I was engulfed in a pillar of pure mana. The mana seemed to be entering me, doing something with me I just couldn’t tell what.

The beam got more dense and tighter until I was trapped in a substance that was harder than obsidian. By a lot. It would be drastically difficult to break and seemed to be connected to me. For a while, I just stayed, trapped in the beam, as the energy flowed through me. It seemed to connect to the very fibers of my being and then it started to strengthen them, I felt my arms start to bulge a little more, my legs got sturdier, and my shoulders broadened.

I thought the energy would stop there but boy was I wrong, the energy next went inside of me. Connecting to my lungs, liver, kidneys, small intestines and all of my other smaller organs. As it did that I felt black ooze start to exit from my body and I coughed up blood and more of the black mixture. The energy then went to my heart, and I felt like I was hit by a train. I stumbled and a flood of the black fluid sloughed out of my body and I threw up more of it.

This was horrible, my body was shaking violently and I couldn’t control the spasms that racked my body. Then the energy finished with my heart and went upwards. I gripped my head and screamed as the energy slammed into my brain. I briefly blacked out and came to on the ground the mana still flowing through my brain. More of the black fluid exited my body and I coughed, black fluid spurting out from between my teeth.

When the energy finished with my brain it ran along my bones, cleaning them and ejecting even more of the fluid from my body. I felt my bones grow denser and more powerful and my joints stiffened a little bit but grew far more powerful. It seemed I was trading speed and flexibility for strength and sturdiness. The mana paused and I foolishly thought that it was over. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I got a notification.

Congratulations! You have passed the body cleansing! Body upgrade process will start now!

Well crap.

The mana started to duplicate at frightening speeds until I had a veritable ocean of mana just floating around inside of me. That's when the real body upgrade process started.

My body was racked with explosive pain. I felt my lungs give out and my legs collapsed, and I fell to the ground in the fetal position. Blood started to come out of all of my pores and my eyes and ears started to bleed as every fiber of my being was strengthened to the max that was possible for me to withstand. I screamed in pain and a shiver ran down my spine as the pain stopped. What was going on? I didn’t trust it.

I heard some of the others scream or whimper and I felt for them. This was not fun at all. I stood up hesitantly and stretched. Well might as well- Pain suddenly slammed through me and I crumpled to the ground again. This time it was my organs being attacked. My skin started to strengthen and my heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and my other organs started to scream in pain as everything was stretched, pulled, hardened and repaired. None of my former wounds or scars were showing anymore.

The pain continued, reforging my entire body until practically nothing was the same except for my brain, the mana didn’t touch that.

The pain continued for a few minutes with me trying my best to not scream at the top of my lungs. The pain was so great that I couldn’t even feel my hands or feet, they had gone numb. The pain suddenly stopped. I was done! I could finally rest! After all of the torment my body had been through, I needed sleep desperately.

Congratulations! You have passed the first half of the body upgrade! Second half commencing in 30 seconds.

I froze. That was only the first half!?! I was going to die from this wasn’t I?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The mana was condensing itself and moving upwards going towards my head. I was afraid. What is going to happen now? I really hoped that the last bit would be more gentle than the first two.

With only 5 seconds left before it started I sat down, preparing myself for the worst. The mana was now around my head like a helmet and was just idly floating around.

I was terrified of it. I would never view mana the same way after this was over if I even survived. Right before the timer started I heard a howl of pure fear and anguish from Storm, the newest member of the Nightmares of Earth. Oh no.

The mana converged on my brain and I was hit with a jolt of pain that utterly cripled me. The pain was incomprehensible, I was screaming my head off and it had only been 2 seconds and I couldn’t think of anything other than the pain. I screamed and screamed until my voice was hoarse.

Suddenly the pain stopped. I didn’t get a notification though so I was weary. The lights went out suddenly. Then I realized there weren't any lights, I was outside! That got me frightened and I glanced around staring into the deep void of black. As I glanced nervously around me I heard a skittering sound and my blood ran cold.

I wasn’t alone in here.

I glanced around and gulped. What was in here with me. I slowly turned around looking for the source of the noise. Where was it? I was afraid to move in case it just made it easier for it to find me.

I heard a long scratching sound from right behind me and turned to see a spider the size of a dog jump at me. I was about to scream again but it hit me in the face, biting me over and over in the face.

I tried to scream but before I could the world spun violently and I was suddenly looking off of a cliff, teetering off the edge. I stumbled backwards and sat down violently breathing hard. My face was still itching and I felt like the spider was still crawling all over my face. I breathed out deeply and scooted back before standing up and looking around. The cliff ended in clouds and I couldn’t see anything under it.

I turned around and came face to face with a bear. I gulped and stepped away slowly making sure not to step over the edge. The bear swiped its paws at me and I grunted turning my shoulder and dug my feet into the ground before it could hit me. It slammed me and sent me tumbling off of the edge, screaming. I fell and I waved my arms all around trying to grab onto something, anything. I let out another scream of frustration and closed my eyes before my world slowly shifted until I was standing on something.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing on a raft slowly rocking from side to side as the waves crashed against it. I looked around and saw a deep blue ocean as far as the eye could see. At this point I was getting confused. What is happening right now? My world was changing so rapidly that I didn’t even know what to believe.

I looked around, trying to see what was happening now. Then I spotted it, a thing that sent blood rushing from my face and made my arms start shaking, a shark fin. I was terrified of sharks. As a young boy I had seen a great white shark take a bit out of a surfer when I was out visiting Australia, scaring me forever. Ever since then I had never seen sharks the same way. To me they were monsters that would bite you if they even slightly felt like it. They were cold-blooded killers.

As I stood there frozen, more and more fins appeared and started to circle me, there were over 3 dozen altogether. I gulped and sidled over to the middle of the raft. The sharks got closer and closer and I started to sweat, when would they attack? The tension was killing me.

Suddenly one of the sharks jumped out of the water and took a huge bit out of the raft, rocking it. The other sharks followed suit and started to take bite after bite of the raft. What had originally been a 20 by 20 foot raft was now only a couple of feet wide.

Suddenly the attacks stopped and I froze. What was happening? This scared me more than it probably should. The water around my raft darkened and a shark came up from under me closing its jaws around me.

I screamed and sat up, sweating bullets. I clutched my heart and found it to be beating so hard I was surprised I still had a chest. I felt my entire body throb with each beat. That had been horrifying, I never wanted to do anything like that ever again, it had been one of the worst experiences of my life, with the beetle overlord a close second.

Congratulations! You have passed the second half of the body upgrade! Your mind is now stronger than ever and your body is stronger than everyone you have ever met before. Unless you have met an E-grade, then maybe not.

Oh? That had made my mind stronger? How?

Your brain was taking your worst nightmares and getting rid of them while also making your brain itself stronger. You went through over a thousand nightmares but you only remember the ones that had the most effect on you emotionally.

I shook out all of my nerves and breathed, calming my heart. I stood up and stretched. I was emotionally dead but my body went as good as new. Then my nose started working and I gagged. The black muck was now dried onto me and was worse than anything I had ever smelled before.

I started running to the nearest river. We had found one before and had been using it as our drinking water, well, after I washed, and the others I assumed, we wouldn’t be able to drink it for a while, it would just be too disgusting.

Suddenly Storm ran alongside me, black muck also coating his fur, it was considerably less than mine but still a lot.

Brock's stat sheet

Brock M. Smith Level: 28 (F-Grade) Race: Human-Giant Bloodline: Human 13 pints, Giant 1 pint Class: Smasher Stats: Body: 314 (Strength body upgrade) Mind: 42 Spirit: 110 Traits: Evolution(Human),Giants Body(Giant) Skills: Heavy Combat(Giant+Human), Smash(Giant) Spells: Weak Rapid Growth, Weak Giants Shout Path: Path of Indomitable Strength Dao: Dao Seed of True Strength