Benjamin – Alpha Zone #193 Level 1 – 20

“-n ten buckets…”

I finish lamely as Max barks his approval whilst I rub my eyes in an attempted to clear them of the after effects of what I’m tentatively calling ‘The Super Shiny Teleport’.

When I feel max lick my hand and I ruffle his ears, I begin to get a sense of my surroundings. It appears we’ve been moved to a humungous jungle, like I’m talking treetops so far up you have to squint kind of humongous.

Taking a gander at the ground level foliage it also seems to have gotten the enlargement ray treatment, as the ferns tower over me and the vines are easily thicker than yours truly.

I’m told I’m a fucking faggot as I scratch behind Max’s shoulder blade.

Then things take a turn for the worse as the loudest “ROOOOOAAAAAAAAR” I’ve ever heard overwhelms me. In turn the jungle goes absolutely batshit crazy with cries and shrieks.

If my ringing ears being assaulted by the barely audible cacophony of unnatural calls isn’t warning enough, a blue screen pops up to also tell me how just much trouble I’m in:

You have heard the call of a powerful being and are momentarily paralyzed.

Trapped in my own skin, I can’t even turn my fucking eyes to look at Max and see if he’s ok let alone do some zen breathing malarkey, to stave off the panic attack which will surely set in as soon as I can actually breath again.

After what seems like a full minute, I can move again and I turn to look at max as the furry blur of a kelpie takes off barking at the shadow that’s travelling up the jungle path we apparently appeared on.

“Max!”

I call after the idiot as goes flat out like a lizard drinking, already a good fifty meters away from me. He doesn’t stop and now more than ever, I begin to regret not taking up the offer of training from the woman who’s littler he came from.

Gripping my cudgel and foregoing my westernized meditation technique, I begin to run as fast as my body will allow, in an effort to catch up to my rocket of a dogo.

To my surprise and annoyance a blue box pops up in front of me and I almost trip:

Quest: Sanctuary

Description: Successfully make your way to the nearest outpost and cross it’s threshold

Rewards: Manamotes (quantities will vary based on your party’s size).

Tip: Follow the guidance arrow superimposed upon your HUD.

Willing away the annoyance another one immediately takes its place:

HUD Initialized.

This much smaller one is accompanied with some generic-ass, what I’m gonna call life and mana bars which are red and blue respectively. Shooing the latest blue box away I continue my pursuit of my anchor to all that is good.

The jungle under-story speeds by in tinges of green and brown while punctuated with dots of red, orange yellow, blues and even purple flowers.

Glad I increased my vitality, I seem to not be having much trouble keeping up the pace. Unfortunately, its still too slow in comparison to the one true dog, who has increased his lead to a respectable 250 meters as I call his name again.

“MAX!”

Still taken with chasing the ridiculously big thing that paralyzed us, he continues in his quest to establish who the fuck is boss.

I’m not sure how long I have been running for but Max the nearly departed kelpie is but a brown blur in the distance when I hear a chittering to my rear.

Doing my darndest to look behind me while also making sure I don’t trip on a root across the path, I catch a fleeting glimpse of something truly alarming on my six.

A double take later I trip before regaining my balance whilst I relinquish my towel to the wild, in a spectacular recovery worthy of a classic catch highlight reel. Having reconfirmed that yes indeed, I am buck naked and being pursued by the backend of a green arrow and giant bloody ants with midlife crises sized mandibles! I find an extra spurt of speed from my legs that they never told me they had, whilst voicing my thoughts on my situation to the world at large.

“SHITTY FUCKING CUNT BURGLING, ANUS WRANGLING DINGO DONG’S!”

My muscles protest at being overclocked without buying them a drink first and I politely tell them to shut the fuck up, as the jungle starts to give way to a much rockier backdrop.

I pass some sort of threshold and get a blue screen to warn me of my stupid:

You have entered Beta Zone #76 Level 21 – 50

I in no uncertain terms tell it to ‘bugger off’, and thankfully it obliges.

Now having rocks to also not trip over and what looks like the odd pine tree root to contend with, I manage to earn another shifty glance to my rear and feel a weight lift from my shoulders as the ants seem to be stalled at the jungles edge.

Slowing my pace and giving them a gesture they probably won’t understand, I fail to avoid a rock and land not so gently on the ground several feet from it. In immediate response, my red translucent ‘health bar’ blinks a little as a sliver of it disappears. In belated concert my body protest about some things being scratched, thrown and dropped where they shouldn’t be.

I’m about to enter a dialogue with it when another “ROOOOOAAAAAAAAR”, this time from much closer, quite literally petrifies me as claret starts to leak from my ears:

You have heard the call of a powerful being and are momentarily paralyzed.

Unable to move again, all I have is a rock strewn ground and half a clear horizon to look at as the pebbles do a little jumpy dance every time the world shakes.

I hear something scrape against rock from far far too close after several of such pebbles dances, whilst my body is released from the lock it was under.

Gasping for air, I frantically look to the direction I think the sounds came from and hear a familiar “WOOF! WOOF!” from over a rocky, lichen strewn hill, not 30 meters to my left.

‘oh shit oh shit oh shit!’

Scrambling up the craggy slope, I ignore the cuts I acquire to stick my head over its peak.

Looking down the short descent I see Max, squaring off with a giant scaly thing.

“MAX COME HERE!”

I yell at my pupper but in response he ignores me as the hulking thing I now recognize as a fucking wyvern, bares its numerous teeth, at the impetuous canine.

Time begins to slow to a crawl as shimmering distortions of heat I have only seen atop highways, begin to manifest around the wyvern’s open maw.

“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!”

The fool of a dog continues as the coppery neck of the flying lizard, rears back and fire belches to where my dogo used to be.

I look on in shock as the roar of flames abates and nothing but black, putrid smoke and glowing stone is left in his place. Turning its attention to me. Its sizeable hook like claws at the apex of its pink membranous wings begin to find purchase on the slope as it drags its formidable body towards me while I look like a stunned mullet.

“WOOF!”

Goes Max as he bounds onto its, wait what?

The dogo LIVES!?!

The world starts to speed up again as adrenalin kicks in and I see my kelpie scrabbling its way up the monsters spike festooned neck, toward its head whilst the monster shakes to try and dislodge him.

It lets out a screech of rage and I look on dumbfounded as the one true dog I call my friend, jumps past the two dangerous looking black horns that crown its head, Before somehow finds purchase with his jaw on the wyvern’s brow and in the process chomping one its eyes in an eruption of blood.

“ROOOOOAAAAAAAAR”

You have heard the call of a powerful being and are momentarily paralyzed.

‘oh fuck oh shit OH FUCK!’

I watch in petrified horror as Max also goes limp while the wyvern easily shakes him off and he lands with a sickening *thud* on the ground below.

Unable to so much as avert my petrified eyes from the horrific scene, the accursed lizard focuses on my un-moving mate with its remaining reptilian eye and ponderously gauges its prey. Then after apparently coming to a decision, its neck whips out in a blur and snaps up his un-resisting from in one effortless scoop.

The sound of my dog’s bones breaking as blood sluices from the corners of the wyvern’s jaw, causes my now released body to go limp as I collapse in despair.

My thoughts cycle in the last moments of Max’s life and a new blue screen vies for my attention but I dismiss them out of hand as I begin to retreat from the world.

I’m told it served me right for being such a useless cunt and my head whips up as I refuse to accept the words or the situation.

I don’t remember when I started skidding awkwardly, down the slope toward the flying lizard. However I couldn’t miss when my right foot caught on a jutting rock and I began to tumble painfully the rest of the way down.

The sound of my skin tearing adds noticeably adds to the pain that my body reports to my rage filled brain. Coming to a stop I notice the world is far darker then I remember and look up to see the massive head of the asshole wyvern peering down at me as blood drips from its mangled but visibly regenerating eye socket.

My anger reaches a new level as the thing my friend gave his life to achieve is being nonsensically undone before my very eyes.

The monsters jaw opens and I get a front row seat to the heat shimmers that begin to form once more around the now blooded rows of teeth. Apparently having apparently learned from its mistake last time, it lowers its serpentine neck closer to the ground so I have no possible way to dodge.

I grin savagely through the waves of pain and rapidly rising heat, in realization that the moment this thing took my dogo I had already made the decision to go and join him.

Reaching out to my side, my hand rests on something hot and sharp, gripping the thing I feel it slice into my palm and ignore the blood and pain as I grip it. Still staring at the monsters open gullet I tense myself to the ground as my twisted ankle tells me to piss off.

“I’M COMMIN MAXY!”

I yell with reckless abandon, ignoring the irrelevant things like the stupidity of what I’m about to do or the multitude of wounds my body has racked up. Closing my eyes, I launch myself into the building vortex of heat above me. Passing through the nexus of heat, the crest of my frankly amaze-balls jump, takes me level with the back of the beasts tongue as I feel my hair ignite and skin go extra crispy.

Single minded in my kamikaze, my eyelids crackle and rip open as I lash out with the sharp stone I picked up, lodging it right next to the fuckers dangling tonsils. Feeling my right hands tendons being cut as their grip loosens I use my left hand as a clamp to hold the now useless hand in place, while the wyverns jaws snap shut on my ankles.

Now free of useless things like my feet, gravity turns up to down and the beast raises its head up while using its disgusting tongue to help me into its stomach. Wanting to make the bastard suffer, I politely refuse its offer and use my now stumpy legs to scissor lock its tonsil’s. Endeavoring to make with stabbing the roof of his enormous throat some more I scream incoherently for dramatic effect.

Things get just a little muddled as I’m reminded of one of those mechanical bull rides while I play Staby McRodeo in the fucker’s esophagus.

My health bar starts to blink dangerously low in my periphery.

I’m unable to see the world anymore and begin to lose track of time.

Vaguely, I register a slew of blue screens before everything goes black.

--------------------------------------

My mind registers an overwhelming heat amid the visions of blood, death and overcooked human that assault it.

Feeling like I’m floating in a womb I begin to question if this is really what the afterlife is supposed to feel like.

Aware of pain far away, like the sunlight that Timmy can make out from the bottom of a dank well, I shelve that idea almost immediately.

Floating for what feels like forever I start to wonder if I have succumb to my alcoholism again, rifling through what is a haphazard mess of sensations and memories, trying to establish a time line I get called a useless loser and immediately get dragged back to reality.

If I had the luxury of pain management, I would be able to tell you that, while I am most certainly alive I’m not in great shape.

Unfortunately I don’t, I just see my health bar blinking an angry red, while my body chimes in with a ‘what the fuck dude!’ level of blaring pain, before I blackout once more.

-----------------------------------

I come too some time later as the palpably hot sensation has receded to a mere, too many doonas on a summers day warmth.

Fighting against the urge to drift back into unconsciousness, I hold onto the incendiary thought that Max’s killer might still be alive.

More than sufficient mental fuel established, I embrace the aches and pains of my battered corpse and pause for a moment as in the darkness I feel my foot push up against something sticky.

Almost certain I had dispensed with such trivial things as feet, I wiggle my toes experimentally and am rewarded with a decidedly squishy feeling as they further push against something wet and barely supple.

Trying not to dwell on what exactly my miracle feet are in, I do a flex of my hands and find that they got the same restorative treatment. Doing a whole body wriggle I discover that I’m enveloped completely by whatever the fuck it is and stave off a not so minor panic attack.

Searching for a visible anchor to moor my attention to, I get told just to give up and die while I focus on the red bar in my peripheral vision. Considering I’m in pitch blackness, it strangely still remains perfectly visible and is about four fifths full and still refilling.

My body for all its aches and pains is no longer yelling at me to leave it the hell alone, so I focus on the small blue and blinking box that rests above my blue bar in my newly augmented reality, for some bloody answers.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The thing balloons into a slew of larger individual boxes and I start where any ‘sane’ individual would who is trapped in total darkness whilst cocooned in something moist yet constrictive.

I start with the top one:

Bonded Animal: Canine analogue (Max) has been slain.

Staring at the line of glowing text the ache of his loss, stings like a lemon applied to the open wound that is now my soul.

Forcing myself to move on, I continue to numbly scroll:

Apprentice Beastmaster class lost.

Classes available for selection:

>Apprentice Spearman (Common)

>Apprentice Knight (Common)

>Apprentice Mage (Common)

>Apprentice Man at Arms (Common)

>Apprentice Diplomat (Common)

>Apprentice Shaman (Uncommon)

…Selection time remaining 4 minutes 59 seconds…

You have slain a Burnished Scale Wyvern level 49, bonus experience awarded.

Experience deferred.

You have acquired the title of Forerunner I (Unique) for slaying an entity level 10 or above, whilst alone and 10 levels below its level.

You have acquired the title of Forerunner II (Unique) for slaying an entity level 20 or above, whilst alone and 10 levels below its level.

You have acquired the title of Forerunner III (Unique) for slaying an entity level 30 or above, whilst alone and 10 levels below its level.

You have acquired the title of Forerunner IV (Unique) for slaying an entity level 40 or above, whilst alone and 10 levels below its level.

Truncating titles into Forerunner IV (Unique)

You have acquired the title of Survivor I (Uncommon) for doing battle with an entity 25 levels or more above that of your own and surviving.

Parasitic Mutator trait activated, absorbing Heart of a Lesser Dragon

Heart of a Lesser Dragon trait inherited.

2437 Manamotes acquired from Burnished Scale Wyvern.

...Recalculating available classes...

Classes available for selection:

>Apprentice Dragon Knight (Rare)

>Apprentice Blood Berserker (Rare)

>Apprentice Gravity Mage (Rare)

>Apprentice Inferno Mage (Rare)

>Apprentice Tempest Mage (Rare)

>Apprentice Bone Mage (Rare)

…Selection time remaining 4 minutes 59 seconds…

Elevant has failed to make a choice in the allotted time frame, having failed to do so Elevant’s main class will now be chosen at random.

Class chosen at random >Apprentice Gravity Mage + 1 to Intelligence per level + 1 to Wisdom per level<

Gravidic Sense passive Acquired.

...Applying deferred experience...

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

...

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

You have acquired the skill Increase Gravity.

....

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

You have acquired the skill Minor Repulse.

.....

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

You have acquired the skill Minor Attract.

......

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

You have acquired the skill Minor Field of Gravity Increase.

.......

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

You have acquired the skill Minor Field of Gravity Decrease.

........

You have leveled up + 1 to intelligence + 1 wisdom.

Opening my mouth to let out the whoop of elation rising up within me. I instead am remunerated with some form of sticky burning in my mouth and I stifle my gag reflex to not be offered more of the same.

Keeping a tight lid on the building urge to vomit It takes a few disgusting moments before I’m ready to will my ‘status’ screen to appear:

STATUS

Name: Benjamin

Age: 29

Titles: Forerunner IV

Class 1: Apprentice Gravity Mage Level: 42 +1 Intelligence per level +1 Wisdom per level

Class 2: N/A

Profession: N/A

HP: 369/461 MP: 442/442

Status Effects: Schizophrenia Type C

Vitality: 178 x 1.05 (187)

Strength: 175 Dexterity: 172

Intelligence: 177 Wisdom: 176

Charisma: 3 Luck: 1

Undistributed Attribute points: 205

Passives –

Human: + 5 attribute points per level

Lingua System: Able to communicate verbally with any system integrated entity and be understood

Parasitic Mutator: Ability to absorb a prevalent trait of a recently killed entity by the host. Must be within 1 meter of target, maximum 3 traits at any one time. Current traits:

1) Schizophrenia Type C: Permanently experience persecutory hallucinations, mood swings and paranoia

2) Heart of a Lesser Dragon: 250% increase in health and mana regeneration rate.

3) N/A

Loner: +15% all damage dealt when fighting alone, -10% all damage taken when fighting alone, -10% all damage dealt when fighting beside others, +15% all damage taken when fighting in a group.

Forerunner IV: + 4 to all core attributes per level

Survivor: Vitality increased by 5%

Gravidic Sense: Sense gravity around you within a 20 meter radius

Skills – Apprentice Gravity Mage

1) Decrease Gravity (LvL 1): Decrease a single targets gravity by up to 100% for a duration of 10 seconds. Target must be within 2.5 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, duration and gravity multiplier scales with skill level). Cost: Variable, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 45 seconds

2) Increase Gravity (LvL 1): Increase a single targets gravity by up to 100% for a duration of 10 seconds. Target must be within 2.5 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, duration and gravity multiplier scales with skill level). Cost: Variable, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 45 seconds

3) Minor Repulse (LvL 1): With you as a fixed center of gravity, repulse a single target with a force of 125% of your current mass weighted against 100% of the targets current mass. Target must be within 2 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, mass multiplier and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 20 Mana, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 15 seconds

4) Minor Attract (LvL 1): With you as a fixed center of gravity, attract a single target with a force of 125% of your current mass weighted against 100% of the targets current mass. Target must be within 2 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, mass multiplier and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 20 Mana, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 15 seconds

5) Minor Field of Gravity Increase (LvL 1): Increase gravity within a radius of 1 meter around you with an increase of up to 50%, for a duration of 1 minute. You being the locus of the field are excluded from its effects (Range, gravity multiplier and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 100 Mana, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 5 minutes

6) Minor Field of Gravity Decrease (LvL 1): Decrease gravity within a radius of 1 meter around you with an increase of up to 50%, for a duration of 1 minute. You being the locus of the field are excluded from its effects (Range, gravity multiplier and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 100 Mana, Cast time: 1 second Cooldown: 5 minutes

Staring at the screen for a while and drinking in the detail, I surmise that I’m basically a superhuman if what these numbers tell me is correct. On top of which, the reason I’m still alive is because I leeched that murdering bastard of a wyverns heart.

Neat.

Now if my memory serves, I passed out when I was still in the fuckers throat so….

‘OH YOU CANT BE FUCKING SERIOUS!’

…I’m still inside its body aren’t I…

Twitching a hand experimentally the sensation matched my suspicion to a tee and I realized what I have been breathing since I got here is probably wyvern stomach gas and start to freak the fuck out about being in what I have affectionately labeled a ‘meat coffin’.

‘in 234 hold 234 out 234 hold 234 in 234’

This dank process repeats until I feel I can face my predicament anew.

So how the fuck to get out of here….

I get told I’m less than subhuman while I turn my attention to my available skills.

Trying to push it one direction won’t help much.

Making it lighter might? But then I’m still going to be inside…

So what if I try a maximum [Decrease Gravity]… aye there we go, feels like a weight has literally been lifted off my shoulders. Now lets try a maximum [Minor Repulse]…

My joints and bones begin to groan in protest while my eyeballs pop and I feel like I’ve been chucked into an acupuncture session from hell!

I cancel the skills and scream while more wyvern juice finds its way in to my mouth and I promptly vomit it and the rest of my stomach contents all over my face.

‘in 234 hold 234 out 234 hold 234 in 234’

My health bar is at about half way as I feel my eyelids begin to reflate.

‘in 234 hold 234 out 234 hold 234 in 234’

When the pain becomes an annoyance and not a hindrance I look at my ‘status’ screen for a solution and my eyes rest on my unassigned attribute points and it’s my turn to berate myself for being a retard.

I start adding points to vitality and start to unsurprisingly feel a heck of a lot better.

And just when I push past two hundred and fifty I get a welcome notification:

You have acquired the Instant Renewal passive skill.

‘Ohoho…’

Pausing my addition montage I pull up the passives description:

Instant Renewal: Regenerate 25% of maximum life when below 5% of life once a day.

My nerd brain takes the driver seat as I metaphorically begin to salivate at the potential for this to be affected by the asshole wyvern’s trait I picked up. To test it I would have to…

‘NOPE! NOT HAPPENING!’

Wresting back my attention to the implications of the attribute skill threshold thingy, I focus on the 144 undistributed attribute points in hand.

Now going off assumptions there isn’t a one to one correlation between my health and vitality attribute so that must mean strength, being a body based attribute, affects it in some degree as well.

So I start adding to strength next in hope of getting an equivalent passive at two fiddy. My muscles begin to feel hot and strained as the increase takes effect, then lo and behold when I get there:

You have acquired the Metabolic Overdrive active skill.

Well shieeeet…that’s not a passive... Still, I’m not going to look a free skill horse in the mouth, and I promptly pull up its description:

Metabolic Overdrive: Double all physical damage and physical size for 1 minute after which, you will suffer a 25% strength penalty for 5 minutes, useable once a day.

Ok so, that is actually a pretty good trump card to have, but right now it would probably make the meat coffin choke me to death.

Looking at my health bar, its back up to 90% and my blue mana bar is almost full as well. Pondering for a moment a new, stupid stupid stupid plan, begins to take shape in my mind.

Chucking the last 69 free attribute points into vitality and bringing it to 323, my skin starts to feel harder.

So what I do next. well to make a long story short I level my [Decrease Gravity] and [Minor repulse] up to level 10 with short pulses to each skill on the meat coffin. At the same time I level my [Increase Gravity] to 10 on myself to lessen the repulse backlash, over the course of what feels like hours.

Was there excruciating pain and exhaustion? Definitely!

Was I crying like a bitch whilst being taunted as I waited for my health and mana bars to recover?

Maybe.

But that's completely beside the point!

The most important thing here is that when the skills were at level 7 collectively, I began to hear tearing sounds which I’m more than a little relieved were not coming from my own body this time!

At the second repetition after the level 10 mark?

What goes pop and erupts into a fountain of flesh and bones while revealing a naked Australian of awesomeness to the monster infested countryside?

An absolute shithead of an exploding Burnished Scale fucking Wyvern, that’s what!

When the blood gore has finished its dripping for the most part and I have given my rocky surroundings a once over, I begin to wonder about how to procure some clothes while I note dusk is about to piss off and let nighttime have its due.