It was Gregory’s third day in this strange world, while the small river had sated his thirst it had done nothing for his growing hunger. He’d made good time following the river downstream at first, but the lack of food was making him feel weaker, and that was making him slower. His options were to either continue on, hoping he’d stumble across a village with food before he died, or do some hunting now before he was too weak for it. Having seen no evidence of human life he opted for the latter, which led him to finding a good perch to hide in and waiting for something to wander by beneath him.
The only way he could tell the time was by the passage of the sun through the canopy above him, and by that metric he’d been at it for half the day before he heard movement. Readying his spear he waited to see if the creature got closer, hoping it wasn’t the long necked wolf that had nearly found him a couple days before.
Thankfully it wasn’t, emerging from behind a bush to reveal itself as a large boar of some kind. Rather than a pair of tusks its entire head seemed framed by short, jagged horns which it used to scrape at the ground, presumably in the hunt of eatable roots. It seemed oblivious to Gregory’s presence as it snorted and dug at the ground while moving slowly. He assumed it was the ability he’d gotten, because it felt like his heart was loud enough to be heard from a mile away.
Still, despite the adrenalin pumping through his body he waited for the boar creature to wander closer. He saw the beast’s back was free of any spikes, meaning that was the place to strike. If he could manage a hit direct to the spine, he might be able to kill it instantly.
He had to admit that the thought of killing something made him a little queasy, but compared to the thought of starving in this world, alone, was worse. Supposedly his ancestors were great warriors, strong enough to subdue the entire world and commit atrocities. He’d always felt guilty about that, constantly hearing about how many his people killed. But for the first time he found himself hoping some semblance of their skill, their abilities, had been passed on to him.
As soon as the boar creature was almost directly underneath him he jumped, spear point aimed at the beast’s spine. He fought the urge to let out a shout that, while satisfying, would have given the attack away. And he was rewarded as the spear’s tip, driven by his own weight, slid deep into the flesh of the boar. As it did he saw a slight pulse of blue light around the wound and the boar, which had been about to bolt, suddenly stumbled as if dazed.
Gregory didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the extra moment, as he instantly realized he’d missed the boar’s spine. After recovering from landing he quickly pulled the spear free from the beast’s thick hide and, with a desperate cry, began stabbing again and again. Occasionally he felt the metal tip bounce off bone, but he didn’t know how long it would be until the boar recovered so he opted to do as much damage as he could now that the surprise attack was over.
“I will survive!” he roared as he finally felt the spear tip slide between two vertebrae. The boar let out a pained whimper and gave him a pleading look as he pushed the weapon deeper, but he didn’t stop until the spear tip was fully embedded and the boar was still.
It had only taken seconds for him to kill the boar creature, from when he dropped from the tree till it stopped moving, but he was exhausted, panting as if he’d run a marathon. After nearly a minute of heavy breathing he managed to focus enough to see a blue window floating in the air before him.
----
NEW MODERATE FACET: Survival
You will survive!
-passively increases willpower
-increased resistance to all environmental effects
----
Despite himself he burst out laughing, the world itself seemed to respond to his desires and agree with him. Or was it his soul doing the agreeing? The fairy had said something about how facets were an aspect of his soul, but despite doing his best to pay attention he couldn’t recall any full explanation. Just something about a facet being his soul agreeing with his mind and actions? Whatever it was, he was glad for it.
Now he had to figure out how to light a fire and butcher the boar. But even as he went about it he felt less cold, less hungry, more confident. Maybe he did have some instinctive knowledge within him, passed down from his evil ancestors. And if that was the case maybe he could survive here.
*****
On his third day Nathen killed two more squirrel-hoppers, one strange deer like creature and attempted to chase down a large colorful bird, but unlike the others it chose to simply flee. Thanks to the loot drops he had a small satchel filled with venison sausage and a full skill of healing water. But it was clear the monsters in this area weren’t much of a challenge for him anymore. Despite the lack of gaining any xp or levels he could kill the small herbivores without much trouble. He quickly realized that, besides a single weapon, they had no real combat skills. Presumably their strategy was to either avoid combat or, if forced, make it too costly to kill them for most predators to bother.
But once he learned their patterns, they were no challenge. Now he only hunted the squirrel-hoppers if he was in need of healing water, and he would only go after a clawed deer if he needed more food. Beyond that, however, he felt the need for a bigger challenge. His swordsmanship had been improving, he assumed because his sword facet was guiding his actions, which was a cool mechanic to include. Small things like how to hold the sword correctly, how the handle was slightly ovoid so he could tell where the edge was pointed, were made obvious. He was leaps and bounds beyond where he had been even a few days back, but he realized there was only so much he could learn fighting prey animals. Even if they were equipped with massive claws or talons.
It was for that reason he found himself wandering further than he’d gone before, briefly finding a river but turning away from it because he didn’t want to fight underwater monsters. Instead his next encounter was in a thicket of brush and vines. He tried to avoid the larger bushes, knowing they could easily contain an ambush predator. He wanted a fight, not to be jumped and killed before he could do anything.
So when he felt a hand on his shoulder he jumped and half drew his sword as he spun, only to find himself facing something he hadn’t expected. He’d been prepared for bears or wolves with some strange mutations, even something like a mountain lion would have been odd but not startling.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Of everything he had prepared for, a very naked woman wasn’t one of them.
He stood stunned as she held out her free hand in a calming motion, taking in her soft curves and smooth skin. A slight green tint to her flesh was all that indicated she was anything but a normal human, and, still stunned by her beauty, he slowly allowed his sword to slide back into its sheath.
Seeing this she gave him a stunning smile and stepped in closer, wrapping an arm around his shoulder while she lowered her soft lips to the side of his neck. His heart hammered, not in fear but in a confused arousal, as she peppered his exposed shoulder with kisses.
“Wha-,” he managed before she stopped to look up at him with a coy smile. Grabbing his left wrist she turned and softly encouraged him to follow her, making no effort to hide her naked form as she led him deeper into the thicket.
He didn’t know what but, something in his mind was insisting that he was in danger. Never before had he gotten attention from a woman like this, much less one as beautiful as she was. And parts of him begged him to relax and go with the flow, to enjoy the game. But, as much as he wanted to do exactly that, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong.
He forced himself to come to a stop and yanked his hand free, only to be overcome with vertigo. The sight of the beautiful woman seemed to blur as soon as he was no longer in contact with her soft skin, as if each of his eyes were seeing something different. But before he could recover he felt her hand on his shoulder and his sight cleared to see her looking at him with a concerned expression. As if questioning what was wrong.
Nathen almost gave in there as he felt almost overwhelmed by the expression of empathy and concern, but he forced himself to focus, there was something going on here. This wasn’t that kind of game, he assumed. He looked down at himself to see his clothing stained with wet blood, that confused him as he hadn’t been injured recently.
Blinking away the strange double vision he reached up to touch his shoulder, only to wince as he realized he was bleeding from the neck.
Where the woman had kissed him.
In panic he pushed the woman away and reached for his sword, only for his vision to blur and swim again. But he was prepared for it, staggering back as he blinked and forced his eyes to focus. He managed to catch a glimpse of green chitin and a triangular, insect like head before the woman touched his hand, trying to pull it away from the hilt of his sword.
But now his suspicions were confirmed, he did his best to ignore the tempting display before him and tried to draw his blade. As soon as his hand touched the hilt he was suddenly overwhelmed by arousal, the woman before him was no longer just beautiful, she had become the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Perfectly curved features with clear, toned flesh that it would have been criminal to conceal. Her expression wasn’t just one of concern but outright love for him, promising anything he desired if he would just surrender himself.
And how he wanted to trust it, to give himself in to the pleasures her form and face promised. But he knew he couldn’t, despite the extreme temptation he managed to grunt out a few words.
“Get… out… of… my mind!” he struggled to get out each word, but as he did the next became easier, and his sword was drawn further, coming free as soon as he finished the statement to slash at the woman.
This time she retreated, her arm severed at the elbow by his attack, and he was able to fully clear his vision to reveal her not as a human, but a massive mantis. Standing nearly as tall as him it had a triangular head with massive compound eyes and mandibles that were still dripping with his blood. One blade like arm had been removed, but the mantis seemed angry now, for as much as it could be said to have any emotion.
It seemed that the illusion only took effect when it was touching him, and now that he could see it properly it understood he couldn’t be fooled. But it didn’t run, instead it attacked with it’s remaining blade like arm.
Nathen was injured, with several bites to his neck and a serious cut in his wrist where the mantis had been grabbing him, but he refused to back down. He had come looking for a fight, and now he was pissed. Despite missing a limb and having been exposed the Mantis was no slouch in a fight, it seemed, as it wielded its remaining blade arm with a finesse born from years of experience. It was also, much to Nathen’s surprise, a match for his blade in terms of hardness. Early on Nathen attempted to cut the other arm in half, only for the mantis to parry his attack and counter.
It landed multiple slashes on Nathen, with each one his vision swam as the insect’s magic attempted to convince him it was a beautiful woman once more, but each time he recovered faster than before and launched a counterattack.
If there was one thing in Nathen’s favor, it was how informative the fight was. The mantis, while not being weak, clearly relied on surprise and illusion to make kills, as such it had no way of killing Nathen quickly. So instead it turned to the back up of bleeding him out with repeated cuts.
It clearly didn’t count on Nathen’s ‘learn to fight’ ability, as his swordsmanship grew with each exchange.
He realized that how he held the sword was more important than just keeping the edge aligned to the target, which hand was on top could alter how he could swing the weapon. The kind of grip changed how strong an attack was, or what kind of attacks he could even make. Even where he held the weapon in relation to his body made certain actions easier or harder.
Several minutes into the fight he had gone from holding the sword before him, arms extended with the tip up to holding it higher and closer to his chest, blade parallel to the ground where it was easier to react to attacks and he had a greater variety of angles to launch his own. And the change in style hadn’t been purely cosmetic, fewer attacks were getting through his guard while he landed more, cutting deep gouges in the chitin of the mantis.
“Getting tired?” Nathen asked, panting himself, as the Mantis stepped back after another series of attacks hadn’t gone its way. As if in response it took a moment to look behind it.
“You turn to run and you die,” Nathen said with a grin, but the monster didn’t understand him and took another step back on its long, thin legs. Only for Nathen to launch himself forward with a thrust of his sword.
To its credit the mantis parried the thrust, quickly realizing he wouldn’t let it escape, but exhaustion had taken its toll on the insect monster as Nathen pulled the sword back, changed his grip and launched another attack all in an instant of missing with his first. This one a swing from his off-hand side, blocking it would have required the mantis to reach across its body with its one arm, but, perhaps in panic or due to fatigue it seemed to forget it was missing a limb and failed to stop the blade from parting the monster’s head from its body.
Nathen, once he was certain the mantis was dead, fell to the ground himself, laughing tiredly. His whole body burned from the collection of wounds, and it took quiet a bit of effort to pull the stopper from the waterskin and hold it to his mouth. But as soon as he did he sucked the entire skin down, allowing its mystical properties to heal him.
----
FACET ‘FREEDOM’ HAS DEVELOPED NEW ABILITY: Dangerous mind
STAY OUT OF MY MIND!
-increased resistance to mind altering effects
-you tend to automatically lash out at those trying to control your mind
----
He chuckled as he read the ability, that would be helpful if he encountered another of those mantis-nymphs.
“Guess this game isn’t PG-13,” he joked to himself as he waited for he ache in his body to dull, “though I guess with the amount of blood I could have guessed that.”
After several long minutes of rest he pushed himself to his feet and nudged the body of the mantis, eager to see what it dropped. He wasn’t disappointed as a pair of armguards formed from the bluish smoke, each made of the same green chitin as the mantis.
“Bracers?” he said to himself as he put the armor on, “or are those just for archers?”