Warren’s eyes cracked open to waves of heat and a cacophony of noise. There were plenty of sounds he could recognize, like panicked screaming, groaning metal, and a number of blazing fires. While those were concerning enough, he was much more worried about the unfamiliar sounds he heard coming from the back end of the train
It was a strange mix of crickets chirping and a fox yelping, accompanied by what sounded like hundreds of feet clattering on metal. And while that was nightmarish enough he was a little more upset about the banging he could hear coming from the car he had just left.
Looking around the scene of the crash, there was a weird iridescent green flame that seemed to actually be burning the metal on the damn train, and by the time he had regained consciousness it seemed to have melted the doors on the train shut sealing the passengers inside
Fighting back a surge of guilt as he hesitated, Warren turned around and put the train behind him. He had never been a particularly altruistic person and now really didn't seem like the time to start, instead he pushed any thoughts of being a wannabe hero to the absolute back of his head and instead once more started walking toward the dining car
As he walked Warren slowly cracked a smile as he whispered
“Status”
And watched a translucent blue screen pop into existence in front of him
[Name: Warren Kingsbrook]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Unearned]
[Soul: Unawakened (???)]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 25/30]
[MP: 25]
[STM: 15]
STR: 4 (+2)
AGI: 6 (+3)
VIT: 6
CON: 3
INT: 7
MNT: 5
LCK: 10 (+1)
[Renown: 0]
— Class —
— Titles —
[Champion Select]
— Skills —
[Tireless]
— Archetype —
Lucky Bastard: A talent for the untalented
* Increases the effect of LCK
— Evaluation —
‘[ Really Gaia, this guy? You’ve gotta be kidding me you know you only get 5 right? Well at least he's lucky, he’ll need it]
Well, that was kinda fucking rude, of course when the world gets a system its got a damn sense of humor. He assumed the extra numbers on his status came from his title but he had no way to gauge their importance. Ehhh at least he seemed to be getting some kind of attention, he had no way to gauge if that was good or bad but he figured it had to be worth something.
Either way he definitely wasn't sticking around the damn train. He’d get some supplies then start walking the rest of the journey. There was no guidebook for this situation, not unless you counted a childhood spent reading a ridiculous number of fantasy novels, which he guessed was the closest he was gonna get.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
But if there was one thing he felt he could take away from said books it was that staying idle would get him killed. The other slightly less pressing fact was that major population centers were undoubtably fucked, which meant he had to get to Stellar City and find Carter so they could get the hell out of there.
His brother knew he was on a train so if this was pretty widespread, and he failed to see why it wouldn't be, then Carter would probably stick around for a week or two to see if he showed up but past that he’d probably cut his losses and leave, which Warren couldn't blame him for.
Walking up to the dining car he felt thankful for his foresight to abandon the train, the same flames that had sealed other parts of the train had instead seeming just eaten away most of the walls of the car, leaving smoldering, molten edges
Sighing at the wasted money Warren dumped everything in his duffel except a single change of clothes and his knife set, he swept through the car like a locust grabbing anything that looked like it wouldn't go bad within the day
Throwing the bag over his shoulder as he finished, Warren glanced at a length of track that had been mostly torn out of the ground by whatever had caused the earlier blast and paused as he got an idea.
Walking over to it, Warren grabbed the end that had been separated and started twisting it. After a few minutes of his hands feeling like the skin was gonna pull off, he couldn't twist it any further. Gritting his teeth he then started to lever the piece of metal against itself until eventually, it broke off.
Now, armed with a weapon of some description Warren felt it was time to start his journey. It wouldn't be easy, but he had confidence in his own abil-
Warren’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something rapidly tapping against metal. Spinning around he brandished his ‘spear’ and eyed the creature- no, monster that was currently climbing over the wreckage towards him.
It was small, roughly the size of a dog and elicited a strange sense of revulsion, it skittered towards him on six double jointed legs yelping loudly once it realized it had been seen. Its actual body was shaped somewhat similarly to a turtles but where its neck should be sat a single wide unblinking eye staring him down with undisguised malice. It was covered somewhat unevenly in a pale green chitin that protected a leathery gray skin, and while he couldn't see its mouth his face paled a little as the yelps turned into a somewhat distressing snapping sound he wanted nothing to do with.
Cursing his supposedly good luck as he braced himself for the crab bug thing Warren quickly ran through his options. Running was admittedly his first choice but something inside him recoiled at the thought, that left him with fighting the monstrosity which he could only hope would go well.
While he knew this wasn't a video game, to him that eye looked like a big glowing weak spot to his vision, and so he readied himself. He could almost see it as the beast tensed its legs to leap at him. All he needed to do was lean a bit to his left, he had the spike grasped firmly in both his hands and as long as he thrust it straight the monster would impale its own eye upon his weapon with the leap, granting Warren his first kill in this new world
Steel crunched as the force the beast leaped at him with twisted the already broken frame of the car it leaped from. A nervous grin spread to his face as he watched it draw nearer ‘Now!’ With a sharp grunt he stabbed his spike forward, gaze trained on the crabs unblinking eye. And missed brilliantly.
Sharply overestimating the level of athletic ability he possessed, Warren stabbed towards the eye, missing it widely and dropping his weapon as it rebounded against the deceptively tough shell. “Well shi-” was all he managed to get out before the thing hit him in the chest.
Warren and the crab crashed to the ground in a tangle of furious curing, chittering, and pained yelps from both sides. They rolled around in the ash with the crab thing trying and failing to drag one of his limbs to someplace underneath it he assumed its mouth was and warren bashing ineffectually at the shell as he tried to keep all of his appendages.
In the end their struggle was broken when the crab thing managed to hit his head with its shell stunning him for a brief moment. Pouncing on his moment of weakness the abomination pinned his arms with two of its legs it squealed with glee at its victory as Warren curled up into ball to protect himself while his mind spun for a solution
Panicking as he felt once the damn thing stopped celebrating it would probably spell his doom he frantically squirmed under the thing until he managed to get both feet planted firmly on its underside before he pushed as hard as he could with both legs, it tucked in its own legs as it sailed through the air and bounced off another piece of wreckage before standing back up and chittering angrily.
Feeling a surge of anger and indignation at nearly becoming a meal Warren swept his hand through the dirt and ash surrounding him and grabbed a sharp rock off the ground. With a slightly unhinged shout he charged across the distance separating them and tackled the crab before it could react.
Channeling his anger he then slammed the rock into the creature's eye eliciting a pained squeal and a bout of frantic thrashing. He narrowly avoided the wildly flailing limbs before he did again and the creatures thrashing slowed. Looking down at the thing that despite barely harming him had come far too close to doing so, he did it again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
[Congratulations! You have slain a-]
And again.
And again.
As the rush of adrenaline slowly faded from his head he looked down at what had been the most recent bump in the road on his trip ‘Gross, well at least there was only one for now' he thought as he looked at the pile of gore it had become. Shaking his head as he tried to wipe some of the blood off his hand with his hoodie he froze as he looked at the scene around him.
He had been far too absorbed in looting and the subsequent fight to notice what was hanging over the horizon line. Far in the distance, somehow failing to cast any sort of shadow was another goddamn planet, close enough to Earth that he could see clouds breaking against its surface. Shocked by the absurd sight his gaze slowly trailed back toward the ground only to snap back into focus. A dozen more crab things were climbing over the train, most were the size of the one he had just fought but there were three that towered over the others
They were each the size of a horse and with much more complete plating of chitin they let out a low roar, setting the smaller ones into a crazed rush to see who could kill him first.