Chapter 1: Discovering the power
Hi everyone! This is the first fanfiction that I ever wrote, so I am kinda putting things out there, so although it is only 2K, hope you enjoy! I am planning to follow faithfully the manga, with the events happening exactly as in the official timeline, however I plan to use any timeskip to further advance this character, so it will be a while before I can even hope to catch up with the manga, so all's well and good on that regard.
The day started like any other: waking up, breakfast, chores, the survey corps returning… Ok it started a little bit differently. Just as I was finishing my chores, I heard a commotion coming from outside; curiosity flaring I shouted to my mother that I was going out, to which she replied with the usual stay safe. I ran to the street leading to the gate, the source of the commotion, and sneaked in past some adults, I saw a ghastly sight; a procession of men, heavily injured, their eyes downcast, their spirits broken. I heard whispering behind me, apparently a 100 of them went out, however there were less than 20 people returning here!
Suddenly a woman burst out, I was a little relieved, I knew the woman, she always had a kind word for me, and her son was the most friendly, caring, and strong guy in the world. Then I saw her face, tears streaming down, worry written all over it. Calling out for her son, she skidded in front of the commander riding the horse, her legs give out at the last moment and she sank to her knees. My stomach set at that sight, and knowing the kindly woman was suffering that much, my heart sunk even deeper than that. Politely, she asked the commander where her son was (well considering the state she was in, it was extremely polite); the commander's look changed, instead of hopeless, he now looked like he was being crushed. Slowly getting off his horse, he said with a voice that was between panic and authority: "It's Braun's mother… Bring it here…", his voice trailing off at the last comment. The soldiers looked downright heartbroken as they retrieved a small package, not much larger than a piece of bread, and handed it to Braun's mother. With a look between surprise and shock, she opened the package slowly… only to reveal that the package contained a severed arm. As she gazed upon the arm, the commander said, "That's all we could get back…". The poor woman broke down wailing, clutching the arm to her chest. A few seconds in, she looked up, with tears streaming down her face and said, "... but... ...my son… ...was useful to you wasn't he?", gathering a little more courage, she continued, "Even if he didn't achieve anything directly… His death… Brought humanity closer to beating them back, right?!". A bit taken aback the commander replied, "Of course!". However it seems that his courage immediately failed after the proclamation, as he retracted his statement, "...No… our survey this time… this time, too… we.. we accomplished NOTHING! Because of my incompetence..! All I did was get my soldiers killed..! WE DIDN'T GET ANY CLOSER… ...TO FINDING OUT WHAT THOSE THINGS REALLY ARE!"
With that my courage failed completely, and I ran home, with tears streaming down my face. I crawled under the stairs, hugging my knees, crying softly, and rocking on the balls of my feet. After a few minutes, I felt something warm, quietly embracing me from behind. It was my mother, with her words of comfort, kindly asking why I returned from outside in such a sorry state. Breaking down in her arms, I told her the whole story, about the kind Braun, whom I admired, his mother breaking down in front of the commander, and how the commander responded to that kind woman. After finishing my story, I started sobbing even harder, borrowing even deeper in my mother's caring embrace, and I remained like that for a whole half an hour. When my cried finally stopped, my mother ruffled my hair a little, and asked me if I was up for lunch. Crying that much, I had lost track of time, however after experiencing something like that, food was the last thing on my mind, and I said so. My mother, looked at me with her usual analyzing eye, and she proclaimed that even if I didn't feel like it, I had to eat something, else it would hurt me later. Quietly following her to the dining table, I forced down some food, although with every bite I imagined myself biting on Braun's arm, with bile rising up my throat every time, making me pause to take a few gulps of breath to keep myself from vacating my stomach of the content I had just put in. My mother watched with a concerned look on her face. By the end of the lunch, which took more than an hour, my sorrow was slowly being replaced, by another emotion, one quite unfamiliar to me: rage. At Braum for dying, at the titans for killing him, his mother for allowing him to go out near them, myself for not stopping him, his commander whose incompetence caused his death, the soldiers for going out of the walls, the kingdom that let them! My mother was looking at the emotions that were passing through my face with a look of concern, I was her only son after all, and dad had died in that accident a few years ago. Looking up, I let out a vicious snarl, "Titans should leave us alone!"
My mother looked quite shocked at my outburst, little wonder, her quiet and unassuming son was snarling in rage, even if a little innocently, about the titans! During the stunned silence that followed my outburst, I quickly realized how much out of character I had acted and I ran out again, this time going to a quieter part of the town, where I was certain that I would be alone. At that point, human interactions were not high on my list of priorities. When I arrived at the said place, and made sure that no one would stumble upon me, I started going over the event that had happened earlier. When I arrived at the part where the hand was revealed, I remembered Braun once again, and my heart filled with sorrow at the thought of never meeting the gentle soul that he had been. The sorrow that was washing over me proved too much for me to bear, and I started crying my heart out, and letting the sorrow take over my whole being. Half an hour later, shaking violently and still sobbing, most of the sorrow had subdued, allowing me to behave partially rationally. With an immense effort, I regained control over myself, using the anger that I felt to regain composure. Which meant that I lost myself in anger and spent the next half an hour, tensing and growling like a beast. Feeling emotionally drained, I jumped down from the hidden spot I was in, washed my face in the river and headed over to my house. My mother, beside herself with worry, hugged me tightly as soon as I as entered the house. After a substantial amount of effort, I managed to make a weak excuse for a smile to show her that even with everything that went through today, it did not change me in any significant form. Slightly embarrassed by the embrace that lasted slightly longer than it should have, I awkwardly extracted myself from her grasp, and started going towards the bedroom, telling her that I felt tired and that I was going to take a small nap. With a slightly worried smile, she told me to sleep well, and started moving towards the kitchen. I gave her a few words of reassurance before she disappeared, and I headed for the bed, where delightfully black sleep quickly overtook me.
A small explosion startled me awake, making me open my eyes slowly. As the world slid back into focus, I started hearing screams echoing throughout the town, alerting me to the fact that something was indeed very wrong. With a rush of adrenaline coursing through my body, I jumped from the bed, thanking my lucky stars that I had not thought of undressing before my nap, and rushed towards my mother. She was still in the kitchen, her eyes were wide open in shock, her mouth gaping. I followed her line of sight out of the window, and saw what put her in such a state. Titans. Seeing the Titans walking around the town as if it normal, my mind simply stopped working, freezing me on spot as I continued watching the horror as it spread across the town. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw a titan ripping the roof off a house to get the human that was in it, I don't know if it was a male or female, it was too far off to see. Not that it mattered to titan anyways, as it put the wriggling figure in its mouth and swallowed. The fear that spread through my body brought me back down to earth, although I could not move, I was too afraid. With a sizable amount of willpower I managed to tear my sight from the windows over to my mother, who still staring in shock, but with every passing moment I could see the light fading from her eyes, as her will to live was being slowly sapped away by the scene she was witnessing. The fear that was in me took on another quality, as now I was also afraid that my mother was simply going to die of shock. With this realization, my feet became limber again, and with a few steps I caught up to her. The only thing that came to mind was slapping her, to get her out of the reverie and slap her I did. She quickly look at me, shocked that I did something like slapping her, but her eyes were sharp again, and that made it much simpler for me. I pointed towards the gate behind, my eyes taking a determined looked and I said, "Let's go.". She nodded quickly, and in a few moments we had left the house, giving it our all to survive.
Weaving through the houses, we got sight of the titans many times, however by sheer luck we managed to avoid them. That was until one particular turn. It was an area we were very familiar with, however, with all the panic that surrounded us, we messed up and we messed up bad. We ended up in street that led to nowhere, a dead end. How appropriate that name was, as a titan filled the entrance of the street, seemingly appearing from thin air. The titan lunged at us, but the angle was wrong, and it overshot us. Seeing a gap, we took the opportunity and tried to slip past the lumbering titan. The joke however was on us, as out of nowhere a heel appeared and crushed us against the wall. Falling on our knees we gasped for breath, as the titan slowly righted itself, with a satisfied look on the bastard's face. Anger started welling up deep inside me, however, the strength of my anger was largely dampened by the damage the back handed kick inflicted on us. The titan, with the satisfied smile still on it's face, slowly picked up my mother, who screaming hysterically, was kicking wildly in the air and punching the titan's hand, but to no avail, as the titan inserted my mother's head in its mouth and bit it off. As my mother's body went limp, my mind went blank, and by sheer instinct, my feet started propelling me along the street on their own, I was elsewhere. The titan when it saw me running, discarded the body of my mother to the side and started running behind me, fully intending to make me its next prey. In many instances, I managed to stay ahead just barely, until the instinct lead me to my house. Running inside, I sprinted to favorite hiding spot, the place under the stairs, and shaking violently in my shoes, I hugged my knees and waited. Sharp sounds started coming from all the angles of the house, wood splintering, furniture moving from side to side, until finally, an eerie breeze flowed throughout the house. Looking up, I saw the titan's hand, closing in upon me, leaving me no venue for escaping. The titan lifted me to his mouth, and like my mother, put my head in there, and bit.
The world went black and I lost all feeling in my body. A message appeared floating in front of me:
GAME OVER
Continue: Y/N
Score: 5300
Age: 12
Friends: 2
Best Friends: 0
Achievements: 0
Information and Formulas
Name: Alaric Dittmar
Title: The Gamer
Level 2
EXP 0
Age: 12
HP: 200
MP: 10
STR: 1
VIT: 2
CON: 0
DEX: 4
ACC: 2
INT: 1
WIS: 1
CHR: 1
LUK: 5
Generic Formula: (Modifier) * (?) * (Level^0.5)
XP Formula: ((Level / 10) + 1) * (Level * (Level % 10) * ((Level *100) - (Level * 10))) * (Level^0.5) except for level one where an extra *10 is used (total 990)
Skill Formula ((Level /10) + 1) * (Level * (Level % 10) * ((Level *10) - Level)) * (Level^0.5) except for level one where an extra *10 is used (total 99)
Strength * 10 = Damage / Lift or move object in tens of kilos
Vitality * 100 = HP
Constitution * 1.2 = HP Regeneration / Damage Reduction (25% of Regeneration)
Dexterity - (0.5^Dexterity) = Dodge Chance (%) / Critical Chance (%)
Accuracy * 0.45 = Hit Chance (%)
Intelligence * 10 = MP
Wisdom * 0.12 = MP Regeneration / Magic Resist (25% of Regeneration)
Charisma * 1.5 = Convince chance / Lie is believed
Luck * 2.5 = Chance for loot / better quality (quality increases every 100) / avoid overpowered enemies / event goes well
Credit to King of Craziness for putting such a high quality image for everyone to use in their work. Visit his deviantart page here: king-of-craziness deviantart com
