Crawling to his backpack, Walter collapsed next to it. Blood covered every inch of his body. Possibly infecting him with the darkness that was corrupting everything else in this world. Cleaning and bandaging his wounds as best he could, he put down his supplies and started to cry.
He had only been on this world for two days and he was probably doomed. Maybe he deserved to be exiled from Valhalla if he couldn’t even last a week here. His family died in other dimensions and maybe he deserved it. Feeling he buried as a child bubbled to the surface as he hugged his knees. Taking slow deep breaths he calmed down, this was his life now. He would have to deal with it.
“Hey kid, you the only one in here,” a high-pitched voice said from outside the building.
Walter flinched away from the unhuman voice, grabbing his ax handle to use as a club. Turning to face this new threat he couldn’t understand what he saw.
The creature was about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide covered in armor. The armor was made of some black chitinous material that seemed to expand and contract as it talked. He could only tell that the creature was wearing armor as it was carrying its bug faced helmet. The creature's face was covered in orangish brown fur with large yellow eyes. Its nose button-shaped and dark blue the creature stood there smiling at him through the bars.
It lifted its free hand holding a weird glass ball. Bright blue light shot out washing over Walter and the whole inside of the building. Walter flinched backward as soon as the light washed over him.
Throwing his ax handle in an overhand chopping method, Walter twisted in his prone position pushing off with his feet. Activating his skitter ability, he felt the gouge in his leg rip as he rocketed away. Or at least he thought he would slamming into a glowing orange bubble.
The bubble bowed, before stopping his momentum completely. Walter fell to the ground instantly changing his body position. His wounded leg behind he would be ready to lash out at this new enemy.
The creature stepped forward the security bars falling away as if cut. The creature’s eyes transfixed only the blue screen in front of him.
“Wow, I mean wow. I never thought I would run into anyone interesting on this doomed planet but an Exile of Valhalla! I mean your clan is some of the most back assward multiverse folk, but do they train up some scary-ass warriors. You guys don’t even know how to fully integrate into The System but you still can take down whole legions of the darkness singlehandedly! I mean look at this!” the creature said spinning the blue screen to face Walter.
Walter could see his status page on it and a running tally next to it. He didn’t understand what he saw but if this beast had access to The System like him, he was doomed.
“Says here you killed an F-5 mutant rat brood mother, four F-3 mutant rat stalkers, twenty F-1 mutant rat foot soldier and two F-1 mutant feral humans in the last 48 hours and you haven’t improved any of your stats. Your clan trains some serious monsters I swear. Mind if I sit with you?” the creature asked. Pulling out a chair from the empty air it sat in front of Walter and then pulled two brown wrapped bars from the air also. Tossing one at him the creature opened its and began eating.
“It’s a Snickers candy bar and these are the only type of world with them and they are a system sent delicacy,” the creature said biting into his and closing his eyes in ecstasy.
Walter slowly unwrapped his and took a small bite of it. It was like nothing he had eaten before. It was salty and sweet like some of the food he ate at the hospital. But this was grades better. Walter quickly scarfed it down not realizing how hungry he was.
“Names Skarlx but most folks call me Karl,” the creature said.
Walter hadn’t even seen the creature move it was so fast as it suddenly appeared in front of him going for a handshake. Tentatively he reached out to shake Karl’s hand. This was a ruse as Karl was suddenly behind Walter, trapping his wounded leg and injecting something into it.
“Sorry Walter this is for your own good” was the last thing Walter heard as he lost consciousness.
Walter woke up an unknown time later, the ache in his leg gone. Looking around he was still in the same building but it smelled different like lemons. Blue glowing were set in the roof lighting up the area he was in, letting him see the destruction his fight with the beasts caused. But any signs of blood and gore were gone even though the shelves were still knocked down.
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Karl came walking into the light from the darkness, wearing bright yellow gloves and carrying a stained mop.
“Oh, awesome! Your finally awake, sorry about knocking you out but I had to. Your scans came back infected and you didn’t have long so I injected you with some antivirals and health serums. Your leg should be healed by morning and you should use your experience before going to sleep. We can talk more in the morning. This also came from the Brood Mother’s corpse,” he said tossing Walter a black orb.
Walter looked around his cot for his bag to pull out his mirror but couldn’t find it. Searching his immediate areas he found nothing he could use
“Hey Karl, I need a mirror or something reflective to access The System” Walter yelled out.
“You know for one of the oldest multiverse traveling clans you guys sure are hillbillies. Use this but I want it back!” Karl yelled back. A black disk came zooming from the darkness hovering in front of Walter reflecting his image. Pulling up his system on the screen he looked at what he had to work with. Remembering the quest he already finished he pulled it up to check the reward.
Quest: Escape Hospital: Escape hospital full of infected humans
Reward: World Tab in Hub
Bonus: Save the Doctor for hidden reward
Walter never heard of a World Tab or Hub in any of his time at The Academy.
“Hey Karl, what is a world tab and hub,” he said loudly enough to be heard.
Karl popped back into the light, looking at Walter like he was a treasure, “You got a world tab from a quest?”
“Yeah but I failed the bonus part for the quest,” he replied thinking it weird that Karl seemed excited.
Karl made a weird sound between a whistle and a purr, then spoke. “Well you won’t be able to access your world tabs for a while but you will need to connect to a hub,” he said tapping his foot.
“I still don’t know what you're talking about,” Walter said back.
“Yeah, and you probably won’t even if I explained slow enough for you to understand you, hillbilly. Let me think about it and get back to you after you spend your points,” he said as he left.
Walter feeling frustrated, laid down, pulling up his status page to spend those points.
Name: Walter Freeman
Race: Human F-1 0/10
Titles: Exile of Valhalla
Experience: 39
Physical: F-1 0/10
Mental: F-1 0/10
Soul: F-1 0/10
Skills: Skitter F-1 0/10
He had almost enough points to raise 4 lines on his status page. Thinking about it for a minute he made the changes he thought were most useful.
Name: Walter Freeman
Race: Human F-2 0/20
Titles: Exile of Valhalla
Experience: 9
Physical: F-2 0/20
Mental: F-1 0/10
Soul: F-1 0/10
Skills: Skitter F-2 0/20
Accept: Y/N
Accepting the changes he laid back down letting The System put him under as it performed changes to his body. Hours later he awoke, the sun just barely beginning to shine through the front of the building. Karl lay on one of his glowing orange bubbles near him on snoring without any worry of the beast attacking while they slept. He could attempt to kill Karl in his sleep but he was sure that he was far stronger than anything Walter could handle if he failed in the attempt. Also, Karl for some strange reason had decided to help Walter.
Walter got up performing a few stretches quietly as he waited for Karl to awaken. Knowing that it would take a couple more levels in his physical stat to notice any real difference he hopes that skitter would have a slight change.
Walking a couple aisle away, Walter activated his skill trying to feel any differences in it. After multiple trials and errors with his skill, Walter stopped breathing heavily, as if he just ran a marathon. He discovered to minute changes in the skill.
He could now slightly change his position he ended up in before the skill ended or he could cause a slight bend in his trajectory. Thinking about these little changes he couldn’t help but fantasize about what changes he would see in the future.
Walking back to the little impromptu camp he saw that Karl was already awake and standing in front of a new strange glowing device with a pan on it. Karl stood there with a giant bowl in his arms whisking away at whatever was in it. A table had replaced the cot Walter had woke upon. The table had been set out complete with two chairs, plates, and cups filled with a bright orange drink.
“You all done with testing out the changes?” Karl asked as he poured some of the white batter into the pan.
“Yeah but what is all of this and where did it come from?” Walter asked back. He heard nothing moving around when he was a short distance away but somehow Karl had completely changed the area.
“Oh, this? This is nothing when you get to my level but I thought a little ambiance for another delicacy this world has to offer. Have you ever had pancakes with real maple syrup and butter with a glass of orange juice? It is to die for and I mean literally to die for. Countless scavengers have died delving into the world’s like this but we can talk about that later” Karl said as he flipped the pancake expertly in the pan.
“Sit sit, it's better when it is hot enough to melt the butter. And afterward, I have a proposition for you because it’s never good to talk business while eating” Karl said as plopped the pancake on the plate and handed Walter a fork.