Benjamin – Beta Zone #76 Level 21 – 50
It’s been a couple of months since I came to call the beta zone home, there is a joke in there somewhere but I’m too content to find it.
Todays the day.
After my months of experimentation and training I’m going to pull it off.
Operation Flawless Victory is go!
I know I should have gone on a leveling up rampage months ago and am stagnating, but I have had more important things to do.
And all my excuses basically boil down to what I like to term ‘perfecting a thing’.
In the world before, it mainly manifested with video games, generally with achievements or acquiring a specific item.
Anyway, point is, no matter the inordinate amount of time invested.
I had to complete all the things.
A psychologist once told me it was an unhealthy fixation on repeating a certain task that acted as a coping mechanism for protecting my mind from trauma.
But what would she know?
She doesn’t have a vitality over 300 and can dick punch a level 40 plus Giant Mountain Bear!
So as I was saying…today's the day!
I’ve had to change positions a few times because I keep running out of Giant Mountain Bears, but right now I have a prime candidate in my sights.
The monster is lumbering toward a copse of smaller pine trees, and when I say smaller I mean they are only twenty meters tall as opposed to their gigantic relatives.
Not wasting any more time, I charge at the beast with a chunk of [Deep Iron Ore] in hand. When I’m within about fifteen meters away from the furry fucker, she notices me as she swings and rears up to face me. Unperturbed by this tactic I’ve seen plenty of times, I wait until her jowls start to open for the trademark roar and I release a [Minor Bestial Roar] of my own and stun her for a good two seconds.
Two seconds might not seem like much, but in a fight with super human speed and strength it’s an age.
Capitalizing on her paralyzed state I jump up and use my free hand to bludgeon it’s snout, her head rocking back as she keel’s over in slow motion. Thudding to the ground a puff of dust escapes the where her back makes contact and wasting no time I get round to her head for the killing blow.
She breaks out of the stun and is about to let out a roar when I bring the [Deep Iron Ore] down, fast and hard. The resulting *CRACK*ing sound of her sturdy skull breaking like a teacup makes the following notification all but redundant:
You have slain a Giant Mountain Bear level 42, experience awarded.
Hardly surprised by the lack of level up I put a hand to her fur and loot its manamotes:
394 Manamotes acquired from Giant Mountain Bear.
Dismissing the notifications I get to work on my skinning and butchering which have improved up leaps and bounds.
The amount of gathering I’ve done over the past months has let me understand how the profession works much better then at first.
Initially I would only get hints and instincts on what to do with a resource, but now if I calm my mind the knowledge of a thing will slip in and settle as it guides me on what to do.
Initially I thought it was mind control, and having spent a majority of my life defending against intrusive thoughts it was only natural that I would reflexively reject something other than my own thoughts.
But now I feel I have begun to heal the mental damage, at least a small part of it anyway, during my secluded months of single mindedness, despite the painfully apparent absence of Max.
Enough of getting sidetracked though, because now I can finally start on the last part of Operation Flawless Victory:
Giant Mountain Bear Hide
Resource Rank: Apprentice
Condition: Pristine
Properties: A durable hide suitable for leatherworking
Storage Requirements: Before storing in a cool and dry place, must be skinned from corpse before rigor mortis sets in to maintain hides quality.
Description: A giant mountain bear hide that is a somewhat valuable leatherworking material. An uncommon hide of a monster that is a formidable foe to any inhabitant of a phase 1 world.
There it is folks.
PRISTINE BAE BAE!
I’VE FINALLY PULLED IT OFF!
Now I can start the curing process and have me a Giant Mountain Bear pimp co-
“rrrRRRROOOOOOOAAAARGHHHhhh”
Snapping my head up in alarm from my reverent dreaming, I look to see where the monster call that I haven’t heard before, came from.
Down the hilly terrain I can make out a swarm of what look like excessively white humanoids as they top a small rise.
Squinting I watch them and their eerily white hair, for a couple of seconds, as they pursue what look like a bunch of spear wielding trolls.
Having everything else in the zone avoid me has left me with little experience fighting humanoid type monsters and the amount of them advancing this way certainly gives me pause.
They chase the trolls down a gully, and although I can’t see what’s happening, it sounds like things are not going well for the trolls.
Making my way to the nearest giant pine I climb up it a bit to try and get a gander at what I’m dealing with.
When the battle comes into sight a chill runs down my spine as the trolls have been wiped out completely and are now being vigorously munched on. Whats more alarming is that their assailants appear to have only lost two of their 50 odd swarm.
Though I’m loathed to admit it, as much as I’ve adapted to my new powers, I’m unsure I can deal with that many whatever the fuck they are without coming out on top. So I make haste toward my makeshift camp and retrieve my [Major Bag of Holding], before swiftly stashing my [Giant Mountain Bear Hide] and exiting the crack in the mountain to find that I have company.
“rrrRRRROOOOOOOAAAARGHHHhhh!”
The, what I’m going to dub as alpha, cries as the others encircle the dead end I find myself in. I cast a fifth strength [Decrease Gravity] on myself and kick off the ground, rocketing up to the cliff top where I cast a half strength [Minor Attract] on a giant pine trunk and zip towards it before thudding unceremoniously into its formidable girth.
Reorientation myself I cancel [Minor Attract] and jump at a steep angle to almost fly up the hill, thanks in no small part to my [Decrease Gravity] skill still being in effect.
The ground streaks my below as I sail over it and behind me I hear the calls of my pursuers fading as I create some welcome distance.
Having run a rough time in my head I guess I’m nearing the end of my weightlessness and focus on a rapidly approaching huge pine and cast a half strength [Minor Attract] again, before canceling both it and [Decrease Gravity] when I’m a couple hundred meters from it.
My trajectory begins to arc towards the earth as I open my arms and cast [Decrease Gravity] on myself at the last second and latch on to the trunk like a crab with fisherman’s finger, lest I rebound back from whence I came.
Quickly cancelling the skill, I Look behind me to find that unfortunately the swarm hasn’t been able to notice the subtle body language hints I’ve been putting out. On account of them rapidly approaching as their long black claws kick up earth and rocks from their all fours gallop.
Weighing my options as I better position myself on a branch, I realize that I’ve come to call this place home and that I’m certainly not going to give it up without a fight. Surprising myself at the thought that I’m actually preparing to fight the swarm, I cook up a couple of plans of attack in the time they sleekly close the distance to my conifer.
“rrrRRRROOOOOOOAAAARGHHHhhh”
The alpha calls as the rest come to a halt with it at the trees base. Then I barely make out a series of whines and clicks as they communicate while tilting their heads towards me. Crying out again the signal to attack has apparently been given, due to the fact that about ten of them scrabble efficiently up the trunk, while the rest pace at its base antagonistically.
Cursing the little bastards for foiling one of my ‘sure thing’ plans, I wait till their about 5 meters from me before I grab onto the trunk and cast [Minor Field of Gravity Increase] at maximum.
Branches groan and snap around me as my assailants screech in terror as they are unceremoniously yanked from where they cling with the force of a mountain. As the once branches made spears ricochet on the way down, splintering and stabbing into them, their allies bellow sense the impending danger from above and fan out and away from their plummeting kin:
You have slain Mana Craven level 34, no experience gained due to level disparity.
...
You have slain Mana Craven level 31, no experience gained due to level disparity.
....
You have slain Mana Craven level 35, no experience gained due to level disparity.
Willing away the kill notifications I see that they have regrouped and have far too quickly taken on a new plan of attack.
In light of their friends failure, the ‘Mana Craven’ have forgone trying to come up and get me for what I would have assumed was the much harder task of felling the tree I’m in. Woodchips start to fly as I curse the unnaturally pale shitheads in the process of guess I’ll have to take the fight to them if I want to make it out of this one and retain unofficial claim on my new home.
Tying off my [Major Bag of Holding] on a stub of a branch I retrieve the [Crude Giant Bear Claw Dagger] I made and tuck it into my [Elevant Initiate’s Sturdy leather Armor], as I give up on finessing this malarkey altogether.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Kicking free of my scarified section of trunk I just manage to create enough distance to clear the remaining branches below as I plummet to meet the assassins come lumberjacks.
The leader notices too late that I’m not where I’m supposed to be as it lets out a startled shriek of warning. Casting a max [Minor Attract] on a now scrambling white haired monster, the thing cannons towards me as I hold out my fist where its head will be as I impact the ground with a *CRACK* and a rumble.
Normal I would be totally dead right now but as I said, I’ve been adapting:
You have slain Mana Craven level 33, no experience gained due to level disparity.
5731 Manamotes acquired from Mana Craven.
Parasitic Mutator trait activated, do you wish to absorb Minor Perforating Claws trait y/n? 4 minutes 59 seconds remaining.
Willing the distracting flash of notifications away when the things head explodes on my fist, I instantly duck to dodge the now viciously lunging others, while I cast [Minor Field of Gravity Decrease] at half strength.
The nasty black and angular claws meant for my head instead meet their friends’ as a sound like metal on metal gets released, accompanied by the comforting chorus of their screams.
Ignoring the notifications vying for my attention, the things haphazardly shriek and bounce off one another, while some of them just float lifelessly higher with their lost globules of weightless black blood.
Tensing my legs to dive free once the spell has ended I notice the pack leader and a few of the more intelligent ones, hightailing it back down the hill.
I let out a sigh of relief, due to the fact I see my mana bar is almost depleted, and I certainly was not looking forward to entering hand to hand with them to finish them off. The minute duration of the spell ends, and I grin as the Chihuahua sized struggling humanoids rapidly increase in size while letting out petulant wails as they fall.
Diving clear, it only takes two heartbeats for a commotion of thudding bodies and broken bones to fill the space I just inhabited, whilst notifications fill my vision again. Looking around to make sure there is no danger lurking, I get to scrolling through the blinking boxes:
You have slain Mana Craven level 32, no experience gained due to level disparity.
...
You have slain Mana Craven level 36, no experience gained due to level disparity.
....
You have slain Mana Craven level 34, no experience gained due to level disparity.
Now that I have the time to assess the kill notifications, I go more than a little bug eyed.
That one Mana Craven had almost as many motes as nine bloody bears put together!
Putting aside my manamote lust for a moment I focus on the next pertinent item on the agenda.
Do I want big shiny claws instead of a roar?
The timer incessantly ticks away as I contemplate.
When it gets down to the one minute mark I sigh dejectedly as I comprehended a problem they never seemed to cover in fantasy stories.
If I ever wanted to manually direct the flow of my own urine again, it probably wasn’t prudent to have sharp things on my digits.
Trying to think objectively as my member recoiled at the though, I was fairly certain that I could passively heal the damage and my increased vitality has vastly reduced my need for the rest room.
But no, no I shall not be stabbing myself voluntarily anywhere near there.
No sir-e bob!
Mentaly selecting in the negative, the box disappears before I get to looting the rest of the beasties and despite the gore and acrid stench of the things, the manamotes they all held are egregiously plentiful.
That done, I will up my personal manamote total and know that whilst I had been doing well from big bear hunting, this little fracas had just dwarfed my months of effort in one foul swoop:
Personal Manamotes: 289,381
With eyes bulging and jaw slackened, I stood there like I had just found a gold nugget in my back yard and was told I didn’t have to pay any tax on the sucker.
However like all good things, that state was fleeting as I thought about where to go from here.
While the encounter had been generously rewarding, if there had been more of them or they had been at a higher level I was almost certain I wouldn’t have come out on top. Also who knew how many more things like that were out there? Worse still, that might have just been a scouting party…
At that thought, the apparent security I had felt in this zone evaporated like a filigree ice sculpture on a tin roof in a Darwin summer.
Complicating things further, I was reasonably sure that the government or organizational management of people at the outpost’s would still be fractious at best.
So that left me with little other option than to head to a higher level zone and cheap kill the biggest monster I could find, to increase my advantage and shore up my personal safety in the process.
With that affirmation my buddy Greeny made a timely reappearance as he pointed me to where he knew I wanted to go.
Effortlessly climbing up the half stripped tree to reclaim my [Major Bag of Holding], I took one last look around the barren yet beautiful vista of Beta Zone #76 and said a silent farewell.
Doing a mental inventory of the water stored in converted and dried gourds, meat and gathered edibles in the bag, I figure I’ll be good for about a week before I start having to collect more.
Letting out a wistful sigh as the picturesque sunset and crisp fresh air begged me to stay just that little bit longer, I shoved away my nostalgia goggles and cast a quarter strength [Decrease Gravity] on myself.
Kicking off the trunk with my ridiculous strength, the world blurred and the wind whistled as I rocketed toward my new destination. As the world sped by I wondered what new horrors lay in store for me where I was headed. Certainly, I knew it would be dangerous, but at things stand, I genuinely see no other viable path forward.
My spell effect ends and I felt Earth’s gravity take hold of me once more, drawing me in a lazy arc toward its rocky embrace. In my descent, I note the air seems to have warmed and that there is a distinct lack of Pines.
Taking in where Greeny has led me, I’m intrigued to see a black and barren wasteland before me.
Over the past months I had always shied away from anything that wasn’t like the Beta Zone, due to the fact that I was in an illusory comfort bubble it was hardly surprising.
Naturally, I had caught glimpses of sandier terrain from afar a couple of times and the ever looming colder higher climbs of the mountain, yet this was the first time I had seen a terrain so barren and scarified in both my lives.
Making a skidding stop as I landed and my feet plow furrows in the coarse terrain, it seems the boots of this set of [Elevant’s Essential Gear] have finally past their used by date, on account of how I can now feel a gravely sensation between my toes.
Unfastening the leather straps on the boots I decided it was probably pointless to get a new pair out as my feet were completely unscathed.
Stroking my neck length beard as has become a habbit of late, I wonder if the sulfurous scent in the air boded well for my plans.
Pushing aside the niggling worry at Greeny’s silent insistence, I take up a light jog and cross the barren, rock infested terrain till I came to it’s more vulcanous counterpart:
You have entered Gamma Zone #23 Level 51 – 79
Having crossed the Zone threshold my green friend disappears once more and I was left alone to contemplate my next course of action.
Feeling like a fool just standing there I start to jog again, if only for something to take my mind off my creeping anxiety.
The sky darkens ominously while the sulfur in the air becomes a thing of palpable taste rather than that of a simple smell.
The tension rises within me while I take to bounding from the dome like black rocks that have supplanted the once barely uniform ground I’ve become accustomed to.
Travelling for a while I came upon what looks like the remnants of an old lava flow, which was strange considering I have seen hide nor hair of a volcano and as far as I know this world had only replaced the earth I knew just a scant few months ago.
Chalking another oddity up to ‘because magic’, I elect to travel along its malformed, black and smooth surface, for lack of other close by landmarks.
Getting lost in the strange and still beauty of the pitch black landscape’s alien topography and the comfortable warmth that emanates from beneath my feet, I fail to notice the sound of rocks shifting and scraping until it is far too late.
When something hard and unyielding impacts me from behind, I feel the upper half of my back bend in a wholly unnatural way, whilst a sickening *CRACK* escapes it as my vision shifts, first to the ashen sky then to the black and barren terrain. Those two things war for dominance of my sight while I somersault through the sulfurous air before violently tumbling to a stop on the smooth and molded ground.
Feeling tears and abrasions on my skin sting at contact with the air I desperately look for whatever the fuck had just trollied me.
Trying to get my bearings I registered that the health bar in the corner of my vision is down to around two third’s full from just one bloody hit!
Endeavoring not to panic, I scan around I note my [Major Bag of Holding] has been flung off to the side.
Making to get up and move toward it, my eyes went wide in alarm as I realized my legs weren’t doing anything I told them to.
Trying not to panic and stem the tide of self-recrimination beginning to well within me, I use my hands to drag myself toward it.
The bag was still a good hundred meters away when I saw what had assailed me also heading for my bag.
My beleaguered and pained progress comes to an abrupt halt when I’m drawn back unbidden, to a day from my time in high school.
They had followed me on my way home again.
It was hardly surprising they chose me as a target.
The kid with all the scars, with no friends who wore ill-fitting clothing and who talked nonsensically to himself.
They’d made it their personal mission to educate me on my place and worth.
The boys from the rugby team were diligent in their lesson plans.
Electing to give me labels befitting of my station and perceived sexuality.
Like with everything in my life, survival was the major tenant, so at the start I tried to ignore them and be about my harrowing days in dignified silence.
This only seemed to make it plain to them my lack of gratitude for their efforts of taking time out of their busy schedules to teach me.
They then decided it was time for practical lessons.
It was small stones at first.
When they failed to get the desired reaction, they naturally progressed to larger ones.
As I was pressed into the sidewalk with blood leaking from a minor head wound, the Rugby team captain stood on my hand while he kept my other pressed tight behind my back.
His breath that stank of meatpie and sauce informed me that Alanah wanted me to sit somewhere else in math’s because I stank of shit.
Refusing to even acknowledge their efforts, I took myself to the part of my mind where the pain ceased to matter, that part I had carved out to withstand Jack’s whims.
It served its purpose for about a minute.
The fullback had decided to take a different approach and dangled my school bag over the over pass while telling me to apologize to them for my transgression or he’ll dump it on the highway.
I started to laugh.
It was funny really.
If I fought them to reclaim my bag, I would get beaten.
If I offered no resistance, I would get beaten.
If I lost my bag and books my foster parents paid for, I would get beaten.
As they beat me while calling me a fucking freak, I couldn’t help but laugh as the blows rained down because it was always rigged from the start.
Despite the respite offered by a good Samaritan who I would later come to know as Bruce, telling them to ‘Get the fuck out of here you little shits!’ as he chased them off.
I couldn’t stop my laughter from cramping and contorting my already bloody and bruised body.
So as I was brought back to the present I began to laugh manically once more, finding myself back on familiar ground.
The thing was as black as the landscape around it, while also consisting of the ground itself. Trying to reign in my mania, I began to notice a clear difference between the ground and it, in that it had an amorphous humanoid form.
It moved in deliberate thudding steps while I looked on in morbid fascination.
The rock creature I thought might be a golem, seemed to be intent on my pack rather than me at this point, so while I was loathed to give up my bag, it seemed today I didn’t also have to get beaten twice for it.
However I was proven a fool for the second time that day when I decided to try and make a handsy escape.
The sound of shifting and scraping stones from behind caught my attention as I whirled around to find my escape blocked by three more of the things.
As the four meter high rock men began to converge on me I was about to cast [Decrease Gravity] on myself in a last ditch effort, when the ground began to quake and tremble as if an earthquake was taking place.
The welcome byproduct of the impromptu earthquake was that my stony assailants also seemed to have come to a halt before their heads shifted to my left in unison, apparently focusing on something only they could discern.
Not wanting to miss out on something of interest in my last moments alive I followed the direction of their gaze diligently to find a fissure had appeared to the mar the uniform black of the landscape with a red menacing glow.
Gouts of acrid steam began to escape it as the ground bucked more violently this time while my hands slip from under me.
When my chin impacted the ground I can feel some of my teeth shattering, earning a moment of disorientation for good measure.
When I recover, I find my head lolling sideways on the black terrain, while my whole bodies bounced as the ground splits with a deafening *CRACK*, as magma shots up in spouts from the much larger aperture.
From the corner of my vision I see that the golems are fleeing as fast as their rocky legs will carry them.
Suddenly a stream of lava shoots out perpendicular to the ground as it engulfs the attempted escapees.
Willing my head to turn toward the source of the searing heat I behold a giant red and black mottled scaly head emerge from the crack in the landscape, seeming all too at home amidst the lava that spilled out beside it.
The thing lets out a *HHHISSSSSSS* as it raises its head to the sky and exposed its glowing mouth to the air.
Rumbling and *CRACK*ing sounds fill the world as it begins to buck and protest while more of the massive monster emerges from beneath the barren terrain. Halfway exposed now the things top half is easily 15 meters, from head to stomach.
Its obsidian clawed legs assert themselves on the black ground for more purchase while swiveling its head to from side to side as it scans for more prey.
It doesn’t take long at all before the black slits of its glowing orange eye’s fixate on me, and it starts to open its menacing maw once more.