Something kept tapping me lightly on the forehead. The sensation isn’t exactly nice, but the ground was warm so I could still bare with it and happily nap. Slowly my hands move up to tuck up under my head bringing along a pile of what feels like sand with them. Next thing I knew I was wide awake and alert. At my side was a bright red looking fruit that had bashed me over the head.
Getting up into a crawl position I look around trying to find out where I am. Could have sworn that I asked to be sent to the wilderness, so why am I on a beach? Golden sand stretched for miles upon miles. Crystal blue waves crashed nearby bringing along a rich salty scent. Really should have worn my crocks, I can already feel the sand in my shoes.
Standing up I start to look around the immediate area trying to make sure nothing threating was here, well except the deadly apple that allied itself with gravity. On my left-hand side was the sea and on my right was what looked like a forest. The beach was incredibly thin but it stretched for miles.
Bending down I pick up the fruit and took a bite. Within seconds I was spitting it out in disgust at the taste. The inside of the fruit was completely moulded brown despite looking so attractive on the outside, how very two-faced. Obviously, I recognised the taste of tobacco.
When I looked at my arms I started to notice that my copper skin had none of the marks that were in the picture of my body. Then all the memories started rushing back if they had been kept waiting and had become impatient. All of the skills suddenly appeared in my head and the general information of the land started to surface.
Adapting to the situation without completely freaking out I try and bring up some sort of status screen. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that they forgot to remove that calm mind thing before sending me off? Numerous attempts later I managed to figure out that I didn’t have a status screen.
How am I supposed to know if my skills are actually working? Sure I can tell that my senses have been enhanced slightly from my previous life, but that might just be an Alpha thing ya know. Well, guess I will just have to try it out. With slow and light movements I walk towards a large rock on the beach. Swear I would kiss a donkey's balls sack if it got rid of the sand in my socks.
Now that I think about it aren’t my clothes going to stick out in populated places? Although they weren’t especially fancy the quality was bound to be higher than that of the norm. A baggy black hoodie with slim fit black jogging bottom they are comfy as hell though. Really don’t appreciate the fact that I can feel my nipples melting off from the heat though.
Crouching down I picked up the large rock with a jagged edge. Why am I doing this? Obviously, I need to test whether my skills are working for safety purposes, but there is definitely a better method. Don’t really have the time to think of another method right now. Putting as much power behind my raised hand I swing the rock at my free hand.
“Bloody, goddammit, that hurt like a mother fucking deep throated pickle with chilli sauce!”
A few seconds later the pains stop. Stiffness quickly covers my body, then I felt my temperature rise rapidly, flexibility finally overpowered the stiffness, strength coursed through my muscles and finally the sweat returns. Without giving me time to process what just happened a flood of information shook my brain.
So from I can piece together the passive skill “Copper Skin” needed to be set to active. When the rock hit me it managed to enable it which is what I had expected to happen. The changes in my body were the different stages that the skill undertook. Stiffness was when the muscles and skin were hardened and so they lost their flexibility, then I started to get hot because my sweat ducts got blocked by the new hardened skin, flexibility finally came back as the level rose and I got to keep the defense properties as you would expect and finally my sweat ducts were unlocked so my body could naturally cool itself again.
Now let's play a game of why I’m light headed. Is it because of that scorching sun or because of that information dump? Really should have thought of the drawbacks regarding that “Instant Mastery” skill before I started giggling like a school girl. They should really put the warning before the description.
Looks like I’m to have to activate all my skills including the passive ones to get them all mastered and guarantee my safety. How the hell do I active “Perfect Recall”? While concentrating I try to think about a memory from the past. What about that time I ate a wasp because it refused to leave my chocolate cake alone? Then the sudden rushes appeared again.
Pain coursed through my brain as memories were restored. Falling to my knees I clutch my head in hopes of soothing the pain. All it did was give me headrush. The bloody Information Entity needs to get his shit together and dish out the side effects or the government will shut him down. Bet I could sue him for something, wonder who I would have to call for that? Some informed entity that’s informed about informed entities?
1 hour later
How have I still not managed to activate all of these god damn skills yet? Okay maybe the pain was simply unbearable when trying to learn two at the same time, but still, it shouldn’t have taken this long. The two that sound the most painful haven’t even been done yet.
Tensing my body I once again smash my hand with a rock. Confused I open my eyes. What the hell, did I manage to miss my hand or something? No, the rock definitely smashed into my hand. Then the copper skin prevented me from feeling it? I’m really going to hate the method of activating Tungsten Body, aren’t I?
There isn’t anything bigger than the rock though. Once again I looked around the area with no results, that is until I saw the trees. Sometimes I hate myself. Getting down on all fours I get myself into a running position. With a quick start, I charge towards the tree while slipping on the sand.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUUUCCCKKKK!”
Clamping my eyes shut my head finally collides with the tree shaking it at the roots. Jesus my body has pretty much become a human battering ram at this point. Depression flooded through my system as I notice that Tungsten body still hadn’t managed to active. Laying against the tree I start flailing my arms around attempting to contain my anger. Nope can’t do it, I’m unloading baby.
“Why in Gods name did the TUNGSTEN BODY NOT BLOODY ACTIVATE? HUH, YOU GOD DAMN LAME EXCUSE OF A CUSTOMER SERVICE ROBOT PIECE OF CRAP. I CAN FIND A BETTER VERSION AT A POUND SHOP YOU SECOND RATE TAMAGOTCHI. WHEN I DIE I’M BRING A BLOODY TOOL KIT WITH ME SO I CAN TURN YOU INTO SCRAP METAL YOU WORTHLESS DOG BREATH PIECE OF CRAP!!!”
Then the pain arrived. Oh, and did the pain hurt? Please, oh mighty Informed Entity did it hurt. While the pain was messing up my mind I felt movement above me. Before I had the chance to move the abnormally large coconut looking thing fell. Once again I find myself unconscious on this beach.
Sometime later
Slowly I brought my hand up to massage my head. Ah, that was defiantly going to leave a bump. How in the hell did my copper skin not block this? Perhaps there is a slipt second between the shift from Copper Skin and Tungsten Skin where I’m completely defenceless?
Bringing my hand back down I notice it has blood on it. Well, at least I don’t have to wound myself for this next one. Sorting through the new pile of information I find what I was looking for. Of course, all it required was speech to active it. OF BLOODY COURSE IT DID! This calm mind skill doesn’t seem to do much against rage.
“Tungsten Skin”
The blood on my hand didn’t disappear, but the skin underneath has become solid tungsten. Luckily the sun didn’t reflect on it properly or I would have to walk around with sunglasses 24/7… or however long a day is here. Grabbing a hold of the coconut I notice I can still feel everything through the metal. All of the little irritating hairs.
Getting comfy against the tree; I take a deep breath. Oh, I know this one is going to suck so incredibly bad. At least this time I don’t have to look like a muppet trying to active it. Resolve and fear filled my eyes as my mouth started to move.
“Titan Regeneration”
The oxygen in my lungs suddenly got trapped. My eyes bulge outwards as flames make there way around my body. They burn there way through any obstacle. Memories of getting burnt alive by the sun start flooding through my mind. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the coconut thing getting crushed in my hands. Mummy, it hurts so bad. Still going to try and tell me giving birth is the most painful thing in the world? HUH!? I THOUGHT NOT.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As the burning pain receded a cool liquid started to flow through my veins. Almost instinctively I noticed that it was mana. All of it came and pooled together in the centre of my chest. So not only did it open up my veins it also created my mana pool for me. No wonder it felt like I was being reborn. The information that came with it was pretty straightforward. From what I could tell the regeneration ability could be activated 5 times with my current mana pool, but with my whole body loaded with mana I could do it up to 50 times.
In other words, my body could store up to 50 times more mana than my actual pool. Well, the Informed Entity did say that this body could handle near enough any amount of energy inside it without breaking. Maybe that’s why it’s stronger than all the other humanoid races.
Using perfect recall I remember the feeling of the mana moving throughout my body. Closing my eyes I start feeling for my mana core and then I shift the mana through my veins. At first it’s a bit slow like sucking toothpaste through a straw, but eventually, it starts moving faster.
Instantly I understood that I had learnt the skill “Mana Manipulation”. From here on out, I could control mana as easy as breathing. Concentrating on the world around me, I start gathering mana in front of me. Eventually, it becomes a ball of glowing green liquid that was floating in the air.
Using my hand I stretch out and grab the ball. Unlike I had expected the ball wasn’t cold but surprisingly warm. Sort of like a portable heater. Although it feels a bit weird as it’s like a liquid and a solid at the same time. Honestly, I have no idea how you would describe it.
Looking through the information I find out that I can transform the ball into whatever I want. Imagining a pole the ball starts to remodel itself. Within a second I had a pole in my hand.
Like you would expect the pole was still like a liquid so when you swung it there was a drag of mana behind it. Concentrating on the pole I focus on all the mana particles and slowly will them to transfer their energy to the surrounding air. Slowly the pole solidifies and becomes as hard as steel.
Once again it informed that I had created the skill “Mana Modelling”. Going off what I knew about the skill in comparison to “Titan Regeneration” I could figure out that I can have this skill on permanently as I can regain the mana quicker. Although I can use it permanently that doesn’t mean I can keep casting it. The mana consumption for modelling is a lot bigger than just having it on. So once I use it I can have that form on as long as I want, but I can only remodel it about 30 times with my mana pool alone.
Picking myself up off the ground I turn to face the large tree. At the top, there were healthy green looking leaves and a lot of those weird coconut things. I’m just going to call them coconuts as they seem to contain coconut milk from what I licked off my hand.
While observing the pole I noticed that the markings had started to appear on my arm. Wonder why they appeared? Well, I obviously did something to trigger it. The only thing I’ve done was hurt myself and activate the skills. So it’s probably the latter that activated it. Although the marks don’t add up to the number of skills I have.
So once again the testing began. One after another I activated my skills to see what happened. The markings stayed the same until I activated Titan Regeneration. For those of you wondering I continued pummeling my hand into the tree as hard I could until one of my knuckles split. The whole time I was dodging coconuts. Once the skill activated the marks on my body started to glow a faint white colour. Why now, aren’t I majestic.
Ah, I got sidetracked from what I had actually planned. Using mana modelling I make the pole appear in my hand. Using my full strength I smash the tree with it. Thanks to the copper skin there was no painful vibration problem. Coconuts started falling left, right and centre. Mwaha the test dummies have arrived. Using dodgy footwork I start to move between the falling coconuts.
10 coconut later I became aware that I had learnt the “Slippery Footwork” skill. Essentially I became a snake, with feet, that could dodge around anything with my footwork. Judging from the name I’m assuming I can get other types of footwork skills.
Dodging the coconuts became incredibly easy. Was pretty much just a nice stroll on the beach. Wish I was still on Earth, could have used my skills to win Total Wipeout and live a life of cool reality shows. Getting bored of just dodging I come up with another idea.
Lowering my poll towards the ground I remodel it. A mana steel bat appears in my hand. What I noticed was that the more mana I put into it the stronger it became. Dodging a coconut I back away a little and then swing my bat at it.
With ease, the coconut sailed off into the distance. Jesus this body is strong. For some reason, I keep forgetting I’m not human anymore. This time I tried to aim the coconut towards a turtle that was just floating on the water surface.
When the coconut collided with the turtle it managed to knock the turtle back a little. The poor thing looked incredibly confused and started to swim away. After I made sure the turtle was okay I noticed that I learnt the skill “Aim”. As you might of a guessed, it lets me aim better.
Getting used to the skill I started to make trick shots. Mostly I would make it so a coconut would bounce off certain trees until it landed in certain spots. After a while, I started to play a game of makeshift golf. Everything was going fine until I launched a coconut and oh the shot was a beauty. What followed, however, wasn’t so great. All I could hear was a loud rawr before the sound of sticks snapping.
“Ah, crap”
Within seconds a monster was running down the beach towards me. Despite its hulking size, it was surprisingly agile as it didn’t stumble in the sand. From the looks of it, the monster was a massive Honey Badger. Now when I say massive I mean massive. This thing was at least 7 foot in height with raging muscles that you could see tensing as it ran. Large sharp teeth could be seen as it ran towards me roaring its head off. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oooooh fuck. What the hell is up with this world making everything so god damn big. The coconuts and now this. I give up.
Before the honey badger manages to arrive I model the bat into a makeshift sword. Unlike the bat and pole, the sword was a light blue that glowed around the edges. There was also a natural grip on it. The monster was about 10 meters away right now, so I had about four seconds before I was dead. Preparing myself for my first epic fight I swing my sword as if taunting it.
Taken by surprise I was informed that I had learnt sword mastery. Before I had the chance to get used to the skill I had to duck under the Honey Badgers gigantic jaw leaving it to eat air. Guess combat experience is the best teaching tool.
Using “Slippery Footwork” I manage to dodge and make my way under the Honey Badger. Luckily it had jumped at me in attempt to bite me so I could simply run under it. The whole time I was under I had my sword cutting its stomach. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to make the sword so it wasn’t strong enough to cut through the stomach muscles. Although a trail of blood was made.
After I had made it out from under the monster I managed to roll away to create some distance between us. At the time I started to put more mana into the sword. Betrayed by fate the Honey Badger started to charge towards me once again. Attempting to stop it I started to make a terrifying roar… it was embarrassing, to say the least.
Even with my mana manipulation skill maxed out I didn’t have enough time to strengthen the sword. If I was fighting a human I would taunt it in hopes that it would stop. All I could do was roar at this guy as I didn’t know a language to communicate with. As if understanding my intention the “All Language” skill kicked in (T/N Druid Language was used). Yes! Time to start the mental battle. So we will start off with a simple shout that makes it sound like I have the upper hand. Let’s play, little guy should work. Makes him sound like a child and that he was only a game to me. Inhaling I prepare my vocal chords.
“I’M GOING TO PLAY WITH YOUR LITTLE GUY!!!”
what? What!?! What in the world just happened? I did not fucking saying that. That wasn’t even remotely what I was trying to say. When did cocky become rapey huh? Good god, maybe I should apologize? No, I would definitely end up saying it wrong. I get that it’s google translate, but a maxed out version should work right? OH SHIT THE FIGHT!
When I looked back up at the Honey Badger I was greeted with a look of fear and shock. The bulging muscles from earlier were now shivering in fear. With slow steps, it started to back away. At the same time, I noticed that my sword was done. An evil look crossed my face as my mouth set into a smirk.
When the Honey Badger saw my face it quickly turned around and started full on sprinting away. Mwahaha his hide is mine. In my past life, meat was really expensive so I rarely got to enjoy it, but this guy was massive. I will feast for weeks. Comeback here Asshole!
“Give me that Asshole!”
Fuck not again! When the Honey Badger heard my shout it picked up its pace. Alright, we never use that language again. Obviously, they need to patch the skill. Does that mean it will sound like that when I hear someone else using it?
Naturally, the Honey Badger was a lot faster than I was. After running for a little I got the skill “Run! Bitch Run!”. When the skill activated my running form fixed itself and I started to run at inhuman speeds. With the skill I was easily running at 60mph, bring it on Usain!
After the skill was activated it didn’t take long for me to catch up. Once the Honey Badger had noticed that he couldn’t escape he stopped to fight. Using my speed I dodged under and incoming claw and stabbed the sword through his arm. As the sword wasn’t a complete solid I could feel as it tore through the muscles and bone like I was using my own arm to do it. Think I might throw up.
Before I could swing my sword a second the time the Honey Badger had leapt back using it’s three remaining legs. Closing in on him I lowered my sword towards the ground and jumped. At the same time, that I had jumped the Honey Badger launched itself forward with its mouth wide open. Twisting in the air I stabbed my sword through the Honey Badgers back, but at the same time, it bit into my leg.
We both feel to the floor. Thankfully I could still concentrate through the pain because of the calm mind thing. Feeling the Honey Badgers grip release on my leg I dispersed the mana sword. Using my right hand I raised its upper jaw while using my left hand to pull my injured leg out. As I dragged out my leg the Honey Badgers started to spasm. AHHHHHH! Instantly I had a sword in my hand and started a stabbing the shit out of its head. When my breathing calmed I noticed that it was just that after death spasm thing.
Positioning myself with my healthy leg and arms I relax against the side of the Honey Badgers corpse. Even though it was a dead body it was surprisingly comfy, it was like a big warm blanket. Probably not the best idea to stay near a bloody corpse for so long. Activating “Titan Regeneration” I slowly fall asleep as the healing process begins. Goodnight, Honey Badger.
“Let’s sleep together Honey Badger.”
shit.