The sky slowly turned a bloody red as two suns rose. The crimson light spread through the forest revealing a haggard Warren, panting heavily and surrounded by corpses.
Eyes flicking towards the sky he breathed a sigh of relief hoping the daytime would bring reprieve from the attacks he had suffered all night.
It had started with the bird, although he dealt with it quickly enough it's screeching had attracted other nocturnal beasts, all of which appeared to have been taking far greater advantage of the system than him so far
First it was a second bird, this one much bigger than the last. Warren had defeated it by hitting its neck with his weapon like a bat as it dove towards him, the same way he had killed the first bird, but it was followed by a spider nearly as big as his torso.
Just thinking of the damn thing still sent shivers down his spine, he already didn't like the idea of another sect of giant insects and it wasn't helped by the nightmarish appearance it received from [Night Vision]. To top it all off the arachnid horror was fast, he had barely been able to keep track of the thing and he doubted he could've killed it if it's mandibles hadn't gotten stuck in the hood of his jacket instead of his neck, at which point he spun wildly until it hit a tree and was subsequently smashed to death.
Following that there had been a stream of decidedly varied wild animals sporting either traits of another species or an absurd increase or reduction of size.
And while Warren didn't know much about North America Ecology he was pretty sure that more than half the things he had seen were not supposed to be on this continent. That included the small pack of squirell sized gorillas that seemed to be paradoxically stronger than a normal one.
All in all it had been a terribly long night and despite [Tireless] Warren was mentally exhausted even if physically he felt fine, if a little banged up. But to top off the trash pile of a night
"Status"
[Name: Warren Kingsbrook]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Unearned]
[Soul: Unawakened (Aero)]
[Level: 8]
HP: 30/40
MP: 35/35
STM: 19/20
STR: 10 (+2)
AGI: 12 (+5)
VIT: 6
CON: 11
INT: 7
MNT: 5
LCK: 10 (+1)
0 Status Points Available
[Renown: 10]
— Class —
— Titles —
[Champion Select] [Trailblazer] [Wind Walker]
— Skills —
[Tireless lvl 2] [Sixth Sense lvl 4] [Aero Affinity lvl 1] [Dash lvl 4] [Stab lvl 6] [Night Vision lvl 2]
— Archetype —
Lucky Bastard: A talent for the untalented
Increases the effect of LCK
—- Evaluation —
[Made it through the night. Hope your ready for what comes next]
Despite killing more animals in the night than the entire day before, Warren had somehow failed to gain a single level. The only small consolation was his skills had still leveled up a few times.
Sighing Warren turned his mind to something else that had happened last night, the System had intermittently sent messages announcing energy thresholds being reached followed by additional features that were being instated.
He hadn't been able to pay very close attention due to the constant fighting but he imagined that it would eventually come to a head soon
Anyways, what really mattered was getting back to the site of the crash. He needed to find more food, and then he'd follow the tracks to the city like he planned originally. Taking one last glance at the status screen he slammed his fist into a nearby tree only to be interrupted by a ping from the system.
[Final Energy Threshold Reached]
[System Integration Complete]
[Auxiliary Systems Online]
[Finalizing Champion Selections]
[Selections Confirmed]
[Randomizing Contest Format]
[Format ‘Contest Of Glory’ Selected]
[Let The Games Begin]
As the System’s voice faded away Warren looked at the two new screens that had appeared alongside his status screen.
[Quest(New!)]
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
387 People’s Tragedy Is Another Man's Treasure
Details:
On the eve of Integration a first wave Monomite invasion derailed your train, using your quick wit and unparalleled skill you were able to quickly abandon the other victims ensuring your sole survival. Now armed with newfound strength return to the scene of the crash and claim your revenge, and most importantly your spoils
Objectives
[ Monomites Killed (8/25) ]
[ Spoils Claimed (0/? ]
Rewards
[ 1x Random General Skill ]
‘Well that's convenient’ he thought as looked at the screen, Warren had already been about to head that way but it looked he had an even greater incentive to do so now. On top of that he’d also be getting rewarded for killing more of those damn bugs. Overall pleased with the Quest he began reading the second screen.
Contest of Glory:
Among the many forms of ritual competition administered by the system your world has received the honor of participating in the grand ‘Contest of Glory’. The Contest will span a period of three weeks and the rules will be as follows:
* As always, only Champions may directly influence Contest results
* Each plane must appoint five Champions
* Victory will be granted to the side with the most completed quests at the end of three weeks
* Champions in close proximity may trigger ‘Contested Quests’
* Completing a ‘Contested Quest’ before the enemy Champion(s) will result in the enemy side losing one effective completed Quest
* In the event a Champion is defeated before Contest end a replacement will be selected
* Attacking any allied Champions will result in a random penalty from the System
* Victory in the ‘Contest Of Glory’ will grant the winning Champions control over the defeated plane
That one was a fair bit heavier Warren had to admit, at the very least he most likely wouldn't need to worry about the contested quests while he was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately that didn't mean he could take it easy. He didn’t really see himself being able to obtain a wealth of quests in the forest, his first one aside, and he didn't feel comfortable leaving his or his brother's fate in the hands of four random schmucks he’d never met.
All any of that really meant however was he’d just have to get moving as soon as possible. Spinning around, he pointed himself back the way he’d been traveling when night fell and he set off. And if he had remained for even a minute longer perhaps he would have noticed the chunk he had taken out of the tree when he punched it in frustration.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stifling the urge to shout in relief, Warren stumbled back into the clearing where the train had stopped a few hours later. H e hadn’t run in a straight line originally which made finding his way back a somewhat difficult task, his saving grace had been when he found the large patch of lightly singed grass he could only assume had come from one of the collapsed Soldiers.
From there it had been much simpler to trace his way back to where the first one had fallen, and from there he had managed to find the train. Which upon his arrival could hardly be considered as such anymore.
It still held the rough shape of one at the front but it little more than a burned out husk, the doors had been torn off and more concerningly it looked like something, or somethings, had clawed into the train through the walls.
And while the front half was at least recognizable as a destroyed train, the back end was nothing more than a pool of melted slag, making it look as if the train was slowly sinking into the ground.
Failing to see any Monomites at first glance Warren slowly crept forward, once more following the guidance of [Ambush] to move at least a bit more quietly. Coming up to the engine as his first target he slowly climbed inside.
The interior of the car was much like the exterior, a mass of jagged and scorched metal devoid of anything immediately recognizable as ‘Spoils’ which now that he thought about it was vague to the point of being less helpful than having no objective at all. The dashboard was a dented mess with large gashes torn into it, and mot of the safety rails built into the walls had been snapped with in half leaving two short ends connected to the wall or entirely off the wall.
Eyes gleaming warren walked up to one that remained two halves attached to the wall and began attempting to pry it off. This time with his newly increased strength it went much faster and with a low groan the metal separated from the wall. Eyeing his newly improvised weapon he proceeded to rip out its partner from the wall.
Now somewhat practiced at the task he quickly removed it to the sound of metal warping and tearing, looking around to pick his next acquisition he was stopped by the unfortunately familiar sound of claws tapping on metal.
Turning to face the door between cars Warren saw a mite making its way through, given some consideration it made sense that this one and the original one had been attracted by the sounds of metal tearing. Eyes slightly narrowing as he matched gazes with the bug, Warren began to feel the slightest hint of pressure from [Sixth Sense] on his chest and moved on instinct.
Rearing back, Warren pitched the small length of railing towards the mite as hard as he could like it was a spear. Accompanied by a piercing whistle as it cut through the air the length of metal shot out far faster than he could have predicted.
It just missed the creature's eye, hitting a pitch of chitin just to the left causing warren to tense for a fight, only to relax as the projectile shattered it upon impact, sending the mite flying back through the door and pinning it to the wall in the next car.
[Congratulations! You learned a new Skill: Throw]
Stunned as his own strength, Warren stood there stunned until he began hearing the hateful chittering of more Monomites approaching the car he was in. Knowing he didn't want a repeat of yesterday Warren started moving through the train hoping it would keep him from getting swarmed.
Moving into the second car he walked up to the mite that was impaled upon the wall. His face twisted slightly in disgust as he watched it twitch, even now it was still trying in vain to get free and maul him. Shaking his head slightly Warren kicked the bug in the eye causing the ocular organ to pop, and subsequently splatter him with the bugs lime green ichor.
[Congratulations! You have killed a Monocular Mite]
[You have received 0.5 Spoils]
‘Ughh should’ve seen that coming’ he thought as he received the notifications. Well at least that told him how to get Spoils, even if he still had no idea what they did. Pulling the smaller spike out of both the bug and the wall.
Looking around this car seemed to be some kind of staff quarters, there were three nooks on either wall he’d bet used to be beds, but other than the newly created corpse there wasn't much to be found. Quickly moving on he pulled up the quest screen again as he walked.
[Quest(New!)]
387 People’s Tragedy Is Another Man's Treasure
Details:
On the eve of Integration a first wave Monomite invasion derailed your train, using your quick wit and unparalleled skill you were able to quickly abandon the other victims ensuring your sole survival. Now armed with newfound strength return to the scene of the crash and claim your revenge, and most importantly your spoils
Objectives:
[ Monomites Killed (9/25) ]
[ Spoils Claimed (0.5/? ]
Rewards:
[ 1x Random General Skill ]
(Quality of skill will be relative to Spoils Claimed)
Okay, so it looked like claiming ‘Spoils’ didn’t refer to actually looting the train, or rather looting it again, but was an abstract value. It did make him wonder though, how to increase the amount he gained. If it was a random amount he’d just kill all the bugs as fast as possible. But if he could find a way to get more then he definitely wanted to get a better Skill from his reward.
Warren dismissed the screen once more as he moved into the third car which appeared to be the same as the second. Seeing that this one was empty as well he relaxed slightly. He paused for a moment as an idea struck him. With the now three spikes his hands were full and if he found anything worth taking, although that seemed like a vain hope at this point, he’d be unable to take it with him.
He could stick them in the pocket of his hoodie sure but he didn’t fancy the idea of not being constantly armed in this situation. Instead he quickly pulled off his hoodie and tied it around his waist. Using it he was able to strap the two smaller ones to his waist freeing up one of his hands.
Satisfied with his work Warren then began moving to the fourth car. Prying the door open as the hinges had melted together somewhat he cringed at the amount of noise it made as it finally bent open.
Inside were another four mites, grinning somewhat evilly, Warren pulled out one of the smaller spikes before activating his new skill. With a whoosh the piece of steel shot out sending its target rocketing across the car. Looking at the other three mites he began preparing to face them as he felt the familiar pressure of [Sixth Sense] begin pricking his skin.