The good thing about stepping into a new world was that it gave me a new body. That was great because I’d used the last one pretty hard. I’d overcultivated to the point where I almost destroyed my meridians, the paths that I used to draw and project magical qi energy. I couldn’t step outside without starting to incandesce like a damn lamp anymore, and I had to keep techniques active the entire time just to slow the whole glowing thing as much as possible. And, of course, I was missing a hand, one that I’d fed to a Heavenly-ranked corrupted beast along with a sack full of potent and highly explosive qi cultivation stones.
It was worth it, of course. The beast swallowed the stones, blew the fuck up, and nearly died in the process. That let my former teacher Wader-in-the-Morning-Waters kill it – no, a massive explosion that ripped the roof off a nearly indestructible crystal spire hadn’t killed the monster. But I’d helped kill it, and when it died, the Earthly Fires Sect died with it. I’d disrupted their plan to forcibly corrupt the cultivation spirals of everyone in the City of the Sunrise Moon, and probably the entire world of Kuan Yang.
Even more to the point, I’d pretty much spit in the face of Menogra the Black, the demonic goddess who’d brought me into the Doorverse in the first place. It turned out, she hired me to make things worse, not fix them, and I’d gone along doing just that without realizing it the whole, damn time. I’d managed to fix them at the last minute, though. At least, I hoped I had. Honestly, I’d probably never really know, which was pretty shitty, but I’d done the best I could for that world.
Finishing that mission led me to this new world. I’d simply stepped through an arch on Kuan Yang and found myself here. It was the dead of night, I was dumped into a small village surrounded by a forest, and I was being chased by zombies. And that brought to me to the bad thing about stepping into a new world.
The new body I got sucked compared to the old one.
John Gilliam, Tamer of the Divine
Active Professions:
Inquisitor (Hidden)
Current XP: 8,164/15,700 Current Level: 3
Pugilist
Current XP: 900/1,600 Current Level: 4
Celestial Guardian (Locked)
Current XP: 5,160/12,800 Current Level: 4
Alchemist
Current XP: 425/600 Current Level: 2
Mental Stats
Reason: 16 Intuition: 15 Perception: 18 Charm: 6
Physical Stats
Prowess: 9 Vigor: 7 Celerity: 9 Skill: 9
Abilities:
Sense Imbalance, Omnilingual, Deep Strike, Leathern Hide, Rapid Striking, Detect Deception
Icons:
Pristine Beast Core
Basically, all my stats had been nerfed the moment I’d stepped into this world. My mental stats dropped by 25%, and my physical ones were halved. I’d lost all my cultivation techniques and bonuses, as well. Back on Kuan Yang, I was stronger and faster than any human had ever been. I was tough enough that blades slid off my skin. I could fire beams of light, grown thorns from my body, and wrap myself in a celestial shield that ignored most damage. I could run all day without getting tired, I never needed to sleep, and I could exist on nothing but water.
As I smashed my fist into a zombie face, I missed that old body deeply. I’d run for about ten minutes before running out of gas, and it hadn’t taken long for the zombie horde that infested the woods to catch up to me. The zombies didn’t run, exactly, but they didn’t lumber slowly, either. They moved at about the speed of a power walk, slow enough to outrun but fast enough to catch you quickly once you stopped.
I hadn’t been too worried, at first. Two zombies approached me, and I dropped into a fighting stance. When the first reached me, I lunged forward, snapping a left into its face, driving a right across its chin, and stepping in to smash my left elbow beneath its chin. That was when I realized that my new body was not only weaker than my old one, it wasn’t qi-enhanced either. My blows rocked the zombie’s head backward, but it snarled at me and swept a backfist into my shoulder.
And that was when I learned the second thing. Those zombies were freaking strong, way stronger than they should have been. The sweeping fist wasn’t particularly fast, and I took it on my shoulder. It should have bounced off me harmlessly. Instead, it knocked me sprawling, hitting me like a heavyweight boxer’s punch. I rolled to my feet, and the second zombie rushed at me, sweeping its fist down like a hammer. I leaned to the side, dodging that blow, and snapped two more jabs into its face, followed by a knee to its stomach. The thing just took a step backward and charged at me, totally unhurt by my blows, and as it crashed into me, I went flying once more. This time, I hit a tree and saw stars as my head smacked into the rough bark.
I slumped to the ground, which might have saved my life since the first zombie tripped over me instead of clawing my face off. I shook my head clear and rolled sideways, scrambling to my feet and flinging my hand out, willing a blast of power from it. I swore silently as nothing happened; I didn’t have techniques anymore.
I took off running again, this time at a relatively steady jog. The zombies charged after me, but their shambling pace couldn’t quite keep up, and I left them behind. At least, for the moment. I knew that wouldn’t last long. They didn’t seem to feel pain, they probably didn’t get tired, and they were superhumanly strong. If they caught me, they could beat me to death pretty easily, and I no longer had unlimited endurance. Already, I could feel my breath starting to come a little heavier in my chest. I could probably run a couple miles at this pace before having to stop, but that would only give me maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of rest. I needed to find a better way to fight these things than my fists.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
That was the problem, of course; I’d just spent months getting used to using my fists in combat. I’d worked hard to train myself to incorporate qi into my combat style, trying to internalize the techniques so that I used them without thought. I’d need to learn how to fight in this new world, and I had no idea how anything worked, yet. Hell, I didn’t even know the world’s name!
“Well, that I can help with,” Sara said in my mind, her voice heard only by me. As she spoke, a small screen appeared in the corner of my vision, one that I could read without impairing my sight too much.
Doorworld: Soluminos
Magic Rating: 40-60
Tech Rating: 20-40
Bio Rating: 10-30
Estimated time for full analysis: 4:03:28
“Soluminos, huh?” I thought at my AI guide, dismissing the screen as quickly as possible. “Looks like it’s both more magical and technologically advanced than Kuan Yang was, right?”
“Yes to the first, maybe to the second. It’s also got less biodiversity, though, so you probably won’t run into as many dangerous creatures.”
“Except zombies,” I thought back dryly. “Any tips for dealing with those?”
“Just one. Take a look at the weapon strapped to your right leg.”
I stumbled to a halt as I remembered that Menogra had gifted we with a soul-bound, adaptive weapon and clothing. That meant that I couldn’t lose them, they couldn’t be destroyed, and they’d turn into something appropriate in every Doorworld I entered. I looked down at myself; I was dressed in a long-sleeved, white shirt that looked like cotton or linen. It had slightly puffed sleeves and tight cuffs that held it in place, with glossy, black buttons running down the front. Below that was a pair of black pants made of a similar but thicker material, loose-fitting with stiff cuffs at the bottom that slid over a pair of gleaming, black leather boots.
More importantly, a heavy hatchet rested in a brown leather sheath on my right thigh. I slid the axe upward and gripped the smooth, polished hardwood handle. It looked like a shorter version of a woodman’s axe, the kind someone might use to fell smaller trees. The haft was about two feet long, and the head was maybe eight inches long and four wide with the silver gleam of steel, not iron. It would be good for cutting branches, trimming a fallen log – and for chopping zombies, I hoped.
I looked around until I found a nice, large tree I could put my back against and waited for the two creatures I’d been fighting to catch up to me. As I waited, I took a moment to examine my surroundings in more detail. The woods I was in looked to be an evergreen forest of some sort. The trees had rough bark and long needles. I reached out and touched one, wincing as I realized that the needles were sharper and far stiffer than the ones I was used to on Earth.
The air was cool but not cold, a temperature I tended to associate with autumn, and filled with a scent that was similar but not identical to pine. The odor was oilier and heavier than I was used to, and it left a slightly bitter taste on my tongue. The ground beneath the trees was covered with fallen needles and the occasional underbrush, and it was surprisingly well lit for it being nighttime. I glanced up and immediately realized why that was so.
A massive, steel-gray moon hung in the sky, one that was easily five times as wide as Earth’s moon and far brighter. I looked around and saw two other moons hanging beyond it, one that looked almost red and another that was a dark brown. These were much smaller than the monstrous one and were maybe half the size that Earth’s moon usually looked, and they hung out just beyond the edge of the giant one. The moon bathed the forest in a light that wasn’t as bright as daylight but was far more illuminating than I was expecting. Fortunately, that made it easy to see the zombie that burst out of the woods and rushed right at me, followed by its buddy a dozen feet behind.
The zombie charged at me, swiping with its claw. I ducked the blow, avoiding its ragged, black fingernails, and lashed out with my hatchet. I aimed the blade for the spot just below the thing’s kneecap, but I hadn’t really practiced fighting with axes before. The blade went low, hitting the top of its shin with a loud thunk. Even so, the zombie’s leg went out from under it, and it fell heavily onto its side. I chopped downward with the axe and caught the zombie just below its left elbow. The hatchet hesitated only briefly before sliding right through, severing the arm – and almost burying itself in my leg as it kept swinging downward.
I managed to turn the blade, but as I did, the fallen zombie grabbed one of my feet and jerked, pulling my foot out from under me. I fell hard on the relatively soft ground, then sat up and slammed the axe down into the zombie’s throat. Black, viscous blood oozed from the wound, but the creature didn’t seem to care as it pulled on my leg, trying to drag me closer to its gaping, rotten mouth.
I panicked a bit at that point. I didn’t know if any of the zombie legends were true, but there was the one that went, “You get bit by a zombie, you become a zombie.” That was a terrifying thought. I didn’t want to end up shuffling eternally through this world, looking for brains or whatever. Would I just die? Would I be aware in my body and trapped in it for eternity? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t interested in finding out.
A rush of adrenaline surged through me, and I brought the hatchet down hard on the wrist gripping my leg. The blade cut through the creature’s limb without more than brief resistance, and I rolled back away from it, getting free of its jaws. Its hand still gripped my ankle, squeezing painfully, but at least it couldn’t bite me anymore.
The second zombie crashed into me at that point, and I fell backward. Its claws ripped at my arm, and I cried out in pain as its jagged nails tore through my sleeve and shredded the flesh beneath. Its teeth snapped toward me, and I jammed my left elbow up beneath its jaw, holding it at bay. I wedge my knee up under its chest, pushing it back, then brought the axe up and buried it in the thing’s temple. The force of the blow rocked it sideways, and I twisted, rolling it off me, then rolled the other way.
The first zombie regained its feet and staggered toward me, swiping mindlessly with its clawless hand. I ducked the blow – even without its claws, the power in its swing made me cautious – and swung another chop at the side of its leg. This time, my aim was better, and the hatchet cut through its knee and severed the lower half of its leg. The creature hit the ground, and I turned away from it as the second zombie rose silently and rushed me.
I skittered to the side, missing my cultivating body’s ease of movement, and let the zombie rush a couple steps past me. I brought the axe up in a wicked backhand that plunged into back of the thing’s neck, and to my surprise, it dropped instantly, its body going limp as I severed its spine. Well, that was good to know; the things still needed their nervous systems to function.
Finishing off the first one wasn’t hard at that point. Its arms flailed at me, and it gnashed its teeth uselessly as it crawled across the earth toward me, but I danced to the side and slammed the hatchet down on the back of its neck. It shuddered and fell still at once, and I yanked the weapon free and leaned back against the nearby tree, panting for breath.
I seriously missed my old body. If I’d been able to use qi, I’d have finished the two zombies off in a heartbeat. That wasn’t an option for me anymore, though, so there was no point in whining about it. What I needed to do was learn how this new world worked, get my stats back up through hard work and exercise, and maybe practice fighting with this hatchet. The presence of the zombies suggested what was wrong in this world – I’d probably need to find the source of the things and end it – but I’d need to get stronger before then, no doubt. I’d probably also need to figure out how magic worked in this world, because I was guessing the zombies were magical in nature, and something like a fire spell would have been super useful against them.
A sound caught my attention, and I looked to the side to see another zombie rushing through the trees, headed directly for me. I pushed away from the tree and dropped into a crouch, holding my axe to the side. I had a better idea what to do this time. I’d dodge the swipe, chop the back of the knee to ground it, then slice into the back of its neck to finish it off. I readied myself, preparing to duck, as a second movement caught my eye, followed by a third and a fourth. I swore silently as zombies burst from the woods, all charging for me, their arms swinging at their sides and their jaws gaping open.
Yeah, so much for a simple kill. “Fuck this,” I muttered, slipping the axe into its sheath as I turned and ran into the trees. I needed distance and time – and maybe a tree I could climb to get away from these sons of bitches.