Chapter 1
Let the growth begin part 1
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Authors note:
CARE MAY UPSET YOUR GUYS STOMACHE
To all my dear fans that loved tBs , i love you and thank you for reading this.
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The waves tossed their long boat high upon the swell and it suddendly jarred as the bow collided with the remaining floatsam of its discarded cargo.
His hands were clouded with the crimson color of his own blood that originated from the burns and wounds caused by the rope the male was pulling in.
This rope was tied to the main mast of the ship and the other end to another ship that cap sized in this blasted storm.
Deckmen were abondaning cargo , throwing it outside into the raging sea , to make room for the refugees that were pulled onto this boat.
The journey started with a fleet of 5 ships and only 2 were still holding their own against the raw power of the natural occurence.
Or maybe it wasn't a natural phenomenon? Maybe even casted by a powerful mage?
As his body lurched forward he turned back to view the ashen face of the women he was destined to protect and ferried across the western sea. She sat with uncanny stillness , placid in her faith amid a stormy sea with her arms draped around her own knees.
" So that is my knight in shining armor ... " she said for herself as the noises were drowned out by the whip like sounds the raging winds produced.
Daniels mouth was agape by what he had just witnessed. Just like usual after every day of his high taxing low profit job the minute he entered his apartment he switched on his computer. There , mainly because of boredome , he looked through his mails first and found a email from a collegue he hadn't heard anything about. In it was a attachment to youtube where a new games trailer was made to the public for the first time.
As Daniel had always been more on the geek or nerd side he had waited for a opportunity like this ever since he left his mothers clutches. This was the first Virtual reality game with a acurate sense system that lets you move your own body inside of a game world.
As he was now he had conquered many games. Name a MMorpg of the newest time , he had done it, But all were just so ... boring. Repetition of gaining max level , gearing your toon or character up , rinse and repeat. Everything was the same.
Some claimed of inovative ideas but in the end run it was just another run-down the mill kind of game with go from quest area 1 to quest area 2 finish all quest and go to quest area 3. Others said their game was a sandbox game. Do what you want whenever you want. At least what they promised but if you weren't part of a guild that had atleast 100 active , 24 h 7 days a week , players you could do nothing of what they promised.
After all Daniel had always been more on the loner side. But this game , as it promised of Land covering enough inhabital area as the earth itself , Daniel had to experience it himself. Vast jungles , endless deserts and the raging see like in the trailer just now.
But to Daniels surprise only basic things such as ordering a ' helmet ' , the equipment that allowed a dive into the system , he only found out about the systems how it worked and short feeds of walking avatars.
This game had not made it public , ever since the production started , as it had suddendly appeared on this day and was to reach the stores in 1 week time.
As Daniel continued to read , he instantly called the firm with his cell-phone , as it was closer then the House-phone , and ordered the capsule. With the marginal savings of 5000 Euros he had on his bank account , saved over the course of 5 years for a new car , he paid for the equipment and a subscription of 6 months.
But Daniel wasn't finished just yet , as he picked up the phone again and searched until he found the contact he was looking for.
" Boss , i still have more then 160 hours of overtime. See you next month. " He spoke into the phone.
" Huh , Daniel? Are you serious? Is everything all right? " His boss spoke in a concerned voice.
Even though the voice sounded concerned for Daniel , he knew it better. Something along the lines of why are you taking a vacation for the first time since you joined this company 7 years ago! This is troubling me.
" Sure is , so see you next month. " Daniel said and pressed the red button on the touch screen.
' Not like he can do anything about it , i have over 90 paid vacation days banked up from the last 3 years to begin with. ' Daniel thought and stored those thoughts for later.
For now he set his mind to research as much as possible about the game , its contens , quests , classes , races and in general even rumours he could pick up. After all Daniel , even though he hated boring games , was a comitted person. If it had nothing to do with the real life at least.
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Daniel showed no enthusiasm besides things that had to be done , doctors appointments , grocery shopping , etc , etc even his only pride and joy , his car , was a thing that belonged to past glorys.
The only real thing he showed enthusiasm towards ever since his child hood was this game. That is why he slept only a maximum of 2 hours a day. Not because he was to occupied with refreshing pages for new information , where there was none , about it but rather even when he was loosely laying in his bed he couldn't close his eyes due to excitment.
But today he passed out on his keyboard not because he was phsically or mentally drained but just because the euphoria had worn of and left him without the required dopamin , joy transmitters inside of your brain , that had sustained his bodys.
* ring* , * ring* , * ring* Daniels doorbell woke him up. Rubbing his eyes he tripped more then walked to the door as he was no morning person. Just as he was about to curse the brave mortal that woke a Lion during his required sleep , he saw a 2 delivery workers.
" We are from F*D-E* , delivery services. Are you Daniel Olson? " The senior looking one of the 2 asked politely.
" Uh-huh. " Daniel grunted towards them.
Both slightly furrowed their brows at Daniels attitude considering it was 10 am , immediatly they thought that Daniel must be one of those unemployed bum that received their taxes!
" You order a package. We are here to deliver it just sign here. " The senior one told Daniel.
Daniel took the hand held touch device from the mans hand and used the electronical pen to sign with his signature. Both of them left and a package the size of a microwave was in his hand.
As soon as he saw where the package came from , the morning drowsiness Daniel always felt washed away.
" It's here ! It's here ! " Daniel almost began to caress the box like he used to stroke a lovers hair gently.
But soon the poor lovers substitute fell pray to a box cutter. Taking out all the bubble wrapper which Daniel pooped with joy feeling reversed to better days when he still had both parents , he took out the equipment.
Like holding a false statue of a god he had made his religion of choice Daniel held up the helmet. This feeling Daniel felt just now was beyong estatic it was pure bliss. Since a long time ago he had not felt so complete and whole as a person.
Sure on his job , especially since he had to deal with customers everyday , Daniel could smile on command. Even though he couldn't remember when he sincerly smiled for the last time nobody ever saw through it.
But now this piece of plastic , electronic chips , lazers and whatever marvelous inventions they had placed inside this little piece of salvation made him smile as warm as thousand suns.
Immediatly he connected the Helmet to his computer with a 10 meter usb Kabel and snuggled up in his hard but comfortable bed. With a buzzing sound the helmet came to life and started the process of scanning the not yet ready Daniel as he still held it in his hands.
He quickly put it on and was sucked into the world , which he hoped , that could possibly be his salvation.
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Welcome to > Other World < , the scan on the synapses in your brain has detected you are a first time user.
A message window appeared before him , as Daniel was completly unfased by him floating mid-air inside of a completly white area.
Would you like to register and create your one and only character inside the mythical world that lays beyond this point?
Daniel frantically searched underneath the window , that was still hovering in-front of him , for a yes and no button but couldn't find anything of the like. A new thought appeared in his head.
" Yes? " He asked more then said.
The > Other world < is a collected phantasm created from multiple Fantasy worlds. Thus there are currently 256 starter races available. About 40 base races while the rest are either half-breeds or even slightly modified versions , such as Drow-elfs and Night-elfs. Each and every one has a different starting abilitys.
As soon as Daniel had read this another window appeared right in-front of him once again.
State what you desire in this world and a race appropriate for you will be selected.
" I want to be the strongest of them all. One that dives into battle , without second thought. " Daniel said.
Invalid request. Your desire needs to be more generalized.
Now Daniel went into deep thought. His skills in twisting words had been honed to the sharpest , it helped dealing with troublesome clients , but he decided to answer as truthfully as he could. Over 5 minutes passed before he opened his mouth again.
" I want to have the ability to go where ever i like and do battle with anything that comes at me. " Daniel stated.
Your race has been selected in regard to your wishes. You are destined to become a Wraithling.
Daniel pictured himself having a incorporeal body and floating through the air , based on the name alone , but his delusions got destroyed pretty quickly while the next window pooped open.
Your looks have been used as a base and projected on a Wraithling, you may alter your appearnace.
In-front of him was a figure with grey-ish ill looking skin. The arms spread out at its sides. It had long and thin brows a rather plain looking face , but what missing were the scars or slabby skin from a orc.
It looked exatcly like a human in regards of bodily structure , besides the ears that were pointy but for some reason bits and pieces of those ears were missing. While the brows were thin the hair atop Daniels avatar was thick.
With 6 foot it was the same size as Daniel and had the violet eyes both of them shared and the red-blond hair color.
" Change hair color to white and now make the skin a darker gray and the freckles disappear. Good , done. " Daniel said as he was satisfied.
Daniel never had freckles around his face but his arms were covered by them as well as his shoulders. This was one thing he hated about his body , among the slight over-weight , his round face and his plane face in general. But the grey skin agumented these features and it looked good. His long white hair hid the round face as well so Daniel was happy.
Select the name of your Avatar.
Daniel , as he was an avid reader , just took the first thing that came to mind as he saw his own new body.
" Angorod. " He just finished and a new window appeared.
Your muscles , flexibilty and brain activity have been considered by the system resulting in increased or decreased stats. During your adventure your height , weight , hair and others things change. Welcome to the > Other world <
A sucktion assaulted Daniles , or now Angorods body , as the white world around him faded for a black one.
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The world that had turned black soon changed and he saw a woman lying on furs inside what looked like a cave. Massive shouts of pain and promises of strangling the person who had done this to her were uttered. Now Angorod noticed the increased belly size this female had to her comparibly lighter frame.
' You can't be serious .... ' Angorod thought.
A man entered the small cave and kneeled besides the female holding her hand. She pressed down on the mans hand so hard even the male began to cry out in pain. With a push from the women a little crying bundle of grey color emerged from the between the females legs.
' Gross ... but i would have thought that i would appear in the little babys body now ... ' Angorod ranted in his mind.
But more shouts , screams and promises of revenge were uttered and a second baby appeared. More and more exited the motherly embrace. But even though Angorod thought this was already gross , he now noticed the first baby attacking the second born.
Little teeth , that seemed to be razor sharp , dug into the second borns pointy ears. As this was the most surprising Angorod forgot that babys weren't supposed to crawl around or have teeth on their first day of birth. Also the punch the first born just landed on the other baby slipped Angorods notice.
Another feeling of being pulled around assaulted Angorod once again and it became dark , warm and slippery around him. Something pressed hard on him and instantly Angorod knew what was happening.
* tring*
Quest has been automatically accepted
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Eliminate or subdue all of the competitors to become the leader of the group.
Competitors remaining 10/10
' Cool ... , i just get pressed out and instantly have to fight for my life.... ' He thought.
Now as he was the last born of the 11 weird brown , black and even red eyes of his ' siblings ' focused on him. Judging by Daniels knowledge he knew this was similar to hyenas behaviour directly after birth and now he had to fight his way to be the ' alpha ' over the pack of new borns.
Angorod leaned forward and lost his balance in the process , as his limbs were incredibly shorter now. But his outstretched arm landed a clean jab with all of his bodily weight on it.
* tring*
You have landed a jab straight to the skull. Due to your weight behind the blow you have inflicted 25% more damage plus an additional 400% resulting from a new born babys not yet hardend state of the bones.
* tring*
You have killed one of your siblings in the fight for supremancy Quest has been updated.
Competitors remaining 9/10
His mother that had just lost most of the pain , was watching the scene and opened her mouth.
" Ulgar , should we name that one already? " She adressed the man besides her.
" No , my love. He could not be the last living one , lets be patient. " The man said.
Angorod was stunned beyond comparison , this was the worst experience in his life so far! But soon he realized it was after all just a game. Now as he viewed his ' competitors ' just as a task he had to overcome , just like he did in the real world when it came to his job , a cool and calculating gaze filled his eyes.
His own flabby little body was set up straight again after some struggle but the other ones had the same problems after they fell. Using his palms and knees he crawled over to a pair of 2 already locked in a death like battle.
He stopped shortly before the exposed back of ones head as the sitting baby was using its hands to strangle the laying baby , which in itself was pointless due to the missing muscle strength , but Angorod would not let this chance pass.
There was a easy way to overcome missing strength and Angorod knew this from his job. The principle of applying greater force using a lever. He slung his flabby little right arm around its neck and used the other arm as a crowbar. Seconds later his competitors body became limp at the genuine choke bar and with another * tring* he received a new window.
Quest has been updated
Remaining competitors 6/10
' Oh 3 more had been taken care of. ' Angorod thought.
Now a new prey was laying in-front of his baby like body that was desperatly trying to get away. Would he let it go ? No he sure wouldn't and set out to get the quest done.
A good 15 minutes later , while Angorod himself had taken a few hits and bites to various places , the matter was settled.
* tring*
The quest has been completed , after your growth period you will receive a gift.
" Good child , so what shall we name our offspring? " His ' father ' said.
His ' mother ' still on her back with spread open legs , that luckily were censored Angorod noticed , opened her mouth but her voice sounded drained.
" Is it a boy or a girl , love? " She addressed the male.
The males hand lashed out quickly and took Angorod's leg. With a jank he got lifted into the air and was cursing extremly. But only angry baby gurgles of * gugu gaga* came out of his mouth as he wiggled around , signaling his displeasure.
" Its a boy. Angorod shall be his name! " His ' father' said.
The woman smiled once and then fell to sleep , as Angorod thought because of her moving ribcage.
* tring*
Your growth period is underway , you are prohibited to log back into your avatar for 8 hours in real time , this will be 24 h in game time.
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The helmet turned of and now Daniel felt his matrace and pillows. Even though it had been short the world was realistic. But soon Daniel thought about what just happend.
' I feel sick ... ' Daniel thought.
He got up quickly and headed towards the bathroom. Choking sounds could be heard miliseconds later as Daniel emptied his stomache into the toilet he barely reached. It had been a very close call , as Daniel almost threw up inside of his bed as the realization what he had just done hit him.
" God , that was awful... But how could i have done that? Maybe something changed inside me because of the game ... " He said his thoughts out loud after gurgling with water to get rid of the foul taste in his mouth.
He still felt nauseas so he decided his hunger could wait as he pressed a button on his keyboard , waking the computer he had set in stand-by mode. With a few clicks of his mouse a forum was opened where people reported about the > Other world < .
Mostly casual things , but more and more reports about their first 30 minutes of play got uploaded. As he still had 7 hours left before he could return he even read a few , but those reports were nothing like his experience.
Some warm parents greeted them gave them a name and played a little bit with their flubby little fingers , before they fell to sleep. Nobody had to kill his own siblings or the like! Well for Daniel bad things were not out of the norm so he just shrugged his shoulders at the thought about his first 30 minutes of play.
But as his thoughts grew to that certain experience his already empty stomache decided to spew out the digestive fluid , all over his monitor.
' Well at least i have something to do now ... clean.... ' Daniel thought while whipping the corners of his lips with a tissue. So he cleaned his whole apartment and cooked some simple dishes up after his stomache had settled 4 hours later. After putting the cleaned dishes away and a shower Daniel put on the helmet and saw a little screen inside with numbers displayed.
Daniel instantly was reminded of a countdown so he just put the helmet on completly and waited for the 360 seconds to count to zero. Now the real adventure should begin , Daniel hoped at least. But he would be disappointed once again.
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Angorod woke up on a slightly hard fur and the feeling of hard earth or stone underneath him. His arms and hands looked bigger and on reflex he opened and closed the still flabby looking things. It was a funny scene to watch but for Angorod it was hard work to focus enough to only move 1 finger at a time as the nerves hadn't fully developed yet.
" Ahh Angorod , come here. " The male he had seen before said from a now opened fur flap that doubled as a door.
Using his palms and shaky knees , Angorod stood up with ease that surprised him so he fell on his arse in a fluid motion. He shook his head and now stood up ' normally'. Still with shaky legs he waddled to the flap and his ' father ' took his hand.
Angorod was being pulled along by his ' father ' but that guy made him run his arse of in the short distance and soon with a familiar * tring* a window appeared.
You are hungry you need to acquire food appropriate for your age and race.
Directly after he read through it , his father stopped in-front of another fur flap. He held it aside and both went inside. For the first time Daniel noticed his great height for a 2 day old as he looked in the room.
Hundreds of other kids , with gray skin and all , were wrestling with one another and fighting for slabs of meat that were scattered about. But even the standing ones were slightly smaller then him. This food wasn't just scattered about it was thrown in a irrgeular intervals by ' adults'.
' Well i know what is going to happen now .... ' * Tring* ' Yup there it is. ' Angorod thought.
Quest has been automatically accepted
Fight for survival
In order to acquire satisfy your hunger , you need to overcome all adverseries in-front of you.
Points of nourishment needed for survival of this day 100
0/100 acquired so far
1 gulp of blood 5 points
1 meat slab 20 points
1 Wildcard 50 points
Time remaining 2h.
Failure will result in death , you will need to start over from day 1 of your birth.
Extra , gaining more meat will let you grow stronger. Results in a extra gift after your growth.
After 5 seconds Angorod realized how you could acquire gupls of blood. Beating other kids bloody and licking the blood of your puny fists was one method , the other was sucking it from wounds you bit into them.
But what a Wildcard was ... Angorod mustered the sharp teeth of his competitors and instantly realized what it was. Flesh of other beings. As bloody as it could get , but luckily the other kids hadn't figured that much out yet.
Angorod was also worried what would happen if there were players around here , but then he realized that he saw no name tags above the babys heads. He had read about this on the web from a pair of twins that had been born from the same parents in the game. You can't see names above other peoples heads , they reported.
Angorod sighed in relief as he started his ' walk ' into the Lions den to do everything he could to not have to repeat the feeling of getting born all over.
8 kids were already fighting , with teeth and punches , over one piece of meat in their mid but this time , instead of muscling his way through , Angorod decided on another method. He made a few noises of * uh-uh Ah-ah* bounced up and down and pointed towards where the adults stood.
The 8 other dumb kids looked in that direction and forgot what they were fighting for. Angorod just grabbed the meat and devoured the small chunk in one go.
* tring*
Quest updated
Nourishment acquired 20/100
' This worked out well. ' Angorod thought but at that exact same second the 8 kids attention returned to the now stolen meat. All 8 eyed him with hate and anger. But Angorod took up his fists and flashed his razor sharp teeth ready to strike. 7 of them were smart enough to back of but one walked towards him.
A straight jab right into the bridge of its nose and another one into its teeth later it started to cry.
" Isn't that one yours Helmurt? Such a pity i don't think a crying one should survive. Should we kill it now? " Angorods ' father' said towards a second man.
" Might be best. " That kids father said.
' Oh my god what the hell is wrong with those people. ' Angorod thought listening to the conversation.
Even though Angorod in the real world had problems , no parent should kill its own child , so he decided to kill the ' obstacle ' as he named it inside his mind. Another arm bar later , the child went into eternal slumber.
* tring*
You killed a innocent child out of pity of its own destiny being killed by its parent. Your alignment has changed slightly. This lets you appear weaker to the rest of the wraithling children.
' ... The creator of this game , should really go play a wraithling himself. ' Angorod thought.
A pack of 20 now turned their attention to Angorod and eyed him with greed of the blood on his hands and the flab of ' nourishment ' they saw in front of him. But he was intent to defend this childs corpse so it wouldn't be eaten , even though Angorod just didn't want to see it being canibalized.
Angorod licked his knuckles and received a new window with another * tring* before he positioned himself in a stance with both hands put up.
Quest updated
Nourishment acquired 30/100
Time remaining 1 h 50 minutes
' This will be a very long 2 hours ... ' Daniel thought.
Directly 2 kids charged at him but after 2 jabs in the face of one and a well placed kick inside the crotch of the other both lay on the floor. Angorod licked the blood of his knuckles again and didn't even notice what he was doing.
After a long 2 hours finally a * tring* made his father appear between the other children calling for him to go sleep.
Quest completed
You have acquired 25 gulps of blood
You have acquired 3 slabs of meat
You have acquired no Wildcards
You have completed the Quest with 185 points of nourishment.
In doing so you will gain benefits after your growth period.
" Come along Angorod , time for you to sleep. " His father said and lead him back to the fur and hard stone he woke up today.
He felt tired after this strainious ' exercise ' and he was physcially drained and extremly wobbly on his kids feet as he walked. But as soon as he was in the certain cave his father left him , so Angorod walked towards the fur and layed himself down and instantly darkness enveloped him.
Only briefly he noticed the message of 8 hours of sleep required to undergo his growth period as he slept inside of the game for the first time. All through out the process he had nightmares of grey kids killing eachother for a little slab of meat.