Loud noises suddenly filled my ears as I opened my eyes. In front of me were several people, a dirt road, and a merchant selling shields.
"So this is the other world..."
I muttered while I looked around me.
Everything looked as though it was set during the medieval period. Houses were made of wood, there were people dressed in medieval clothing, and some even had swords and bows strapped to them.
"Hey, you're blocking the road!"
An angry voice suddenly shouted at me.
Startled, I turned my head towards the owner of the voice and saw several carriages lined up behind me.
"Sorry!"
I quickly apologized before stepping aside.
Turns out I was standing in the middle of a road. I probably should've realized that earlier.
Well, that was a great start. Here's hoping there wouldn't be anymore incidents before I...
"Crap..."
I just realized...I'm in a completely unfamiliar environment with nothing except a bag of eris coins, my metallic spider armor, and my costume hidden beneath my clothes. No one here knows who I am and vice versa. No Aunt May, no Ned, no Mr. Delmar, nobody. I don't even have a place to stay.
Shit. Where do I go? What am I supposed to do? Eris didn't give me any instructions on what to do once I got here...
Right. This is alright. Judging by the sun's position in the sky, it's currently around seven in the morning. I've got enough time to, hopefully, find a place to stay at.
Back home, Aunt May kept talking about joining an organization named FEAST - a homeless shelter program. I wonder if there's a similar program here. If there is, then I should probably head towards the town center...wherever that is. That's usually where they put up their ads and stuff.
Since I'm obviously unfamiliar with this city, the smartest course of action would be to ask for directions.
The closest person I could see was a sleeping cashier inside the shop called "Wiz's Magic Shop".
I opened the door to the shop, ringing the bell in the process.
The cashier must have been very sleepy as she didn't even react to the bell ringing.
"Um...hello?"
"Wha- Oh, Hi! Welcome to Wiz's magic shop, how may I help you?"
The cashier suddenly woke up and smiled at me.
She was wearing a light purple long dress under a dark purple hooded gambeson robe with golden props, and dark-purple boots. Over her robe, there a golden cross brooch with bat wings.
"I'm looking for directions. Do you know where the town center is?"
"Ahhh... you must be new here. Welcome to Axel, the town of beginners. As for your question, you must looking for the guild. Just continue down the road then turn left. After that, you just have to go straight until you reach the guild.
Axel, huh? So that's the name of this town. Also, Guild? Eris did mention that her superiors modeled this world after videogames from my world, so I'm guessing this guild's going to be about a certain profession like the thieves guild in Skyrim.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
What a nice lady.
I followed her directions and soon came across a huge building. In front of it was a sign that read 'Guild'
"This must be the place..."
I pushed open the door and was greeted by something akin to that of a restaurant. The guild was silent save for a few murmurs and a really noisy group at the back.
"Ah! Hello there. If you want to dine here please take a seat. If you want to take a quest, please proceed to the counter"
A waitress asked me as soon as I walked in.
"Sorry. quests?"
"Oh! You must be new here. Adventurers take quests in order to help the town of Axel as well as to gain money for their everyday lives."
Okay, yeah. This is definitely like Skyrim.
"If I want to take a quest where would I get one?"
"Over there by the door next to the counter, just give your adventurer card to Luna-san"
Okayyyyyy...adventurer card?
"Adventurer card?"
"You do know what an adventurer card is right?"
I can feel my face heat up. Was this supposed to be common knowledge? Quick! Think something funny up! Go, Spider brain!
"Uhh...no?"
Wow...great work, brain...
"Really? Have you been living under a rock or something?"
Did you have to rub it in?
"Kinda?"
Aaaand now she's looking at me like I'm crazy
"An adventurer card keeps track of how many monsters you kill, how much experience you have, and what abilities you have or can learn, if you want to know more just go over to the counter and ask Luna-san."
"O-oh, okay, thanks"
I walked towards the counter and saw a blonde lady standing there. I approached her to ask her what an adventurer card is when someone in full armor walked in front of me, cutting me off. Rude.
"Luna-san, I have completed the quest to slay the pack of one shot bears" He said as he handed her some kind of card.
I'm gonna take a guess and say that's an adventurer card and not some kind of card game they're playing.
"Thank you, Mitsurugi-san. Here is your reward."
She handed him a bag of coins, like a REALLY big sack of coins, is that seriously from one quest?
"Thank you, Luna-san. I'll come back later to do more quests!"
The Mitsurugi guy took the bag and started walking away, should I ask him? He seems kinda rude though...
"Can I help you?"
Crap. I've been standing too long
"Uhh...yes? I was wondering if I could register as an adventurer. I just arrived here so could you please run me through the basics or something?"
"Oh! Of course! There is a registration fee though, I hope that's okay."
"Umm...sure, how much is it?"
"The registration fee is 1,000 eris."
"Oh.."
I took out the bag Eris gave me before sending me here. It was full to the brim with silver coins the size of a quarter. I took on out of the bag and flipped it over. On it's back was the number 10. Taking out a hundred of them, I gave it to the counter lady who smiled and took them.
"All right. Since you said you want to become an adventurer but out of this town, you probably don't have any understanding of what they are, so I'll explain it from the start.. First, adventurers are responsible for the extermination of monsters wandering outside the town, people who get rid of dangerous creatures that might harm the citizens. They're also jacks-of-all-trades, taking on odd jobs that require their talents. Collectively known as adventurers are people who earn a living this way. And among adventurers, there are different jobs."
So adventurers are basically mercenaries, taking on different jobs in order to get money. Do I really want to do this? I came here to help people not to become a mercenary, but I need money to live here and becoming an adventurer seems to be the highest paying job here when based on the amount of coins that Mitsurugi guy received earlier. And if what she says is true then taking in quests can help the people of this town essentially hitting two birds with one stone.
The counter lady then handed me card which I took.
It was about the size of a driver's license and seemed to be a kind of identification card.
"Please look over here; do you see the word 'Level'? As you know, all things in the world have souls no matter what form it takes. If you eat or kill a being, you can absorb a part of the memory of the soul, known as 'Experience Points. Experience Points are normally intangible things, but…"
The counter lady pointed to one part of the card and continued.
"With this card, the Experience Points the adventurer absorbs will be shown here. At the same time, the level corresponding to your experience points will be displayed here. This shows how strong an adventurer is. How many enemies you defeat will be recorded here. With the accumulation of experience points, all creatures will grow stronger rapidly at some point, known as leveling up. Simply put, leveling up will grant you all sorts of benefits, such as skill points to learn new skills. So please work hard to increase your level."
There was no denying it. I'm in a videogame, there was even a leveling system! Not to mention their 'Adventurer card' was basically the menu button
"First, please fill in your height, weight, age and other details in the blanks."
I filled in my measurements on the form given to me.
Height was 177 cm (5 ft., 10 in), weight 76 kg (167 lbs.). Sixteen years old, brown hair and hazel eyes…
"That'll be fine, please touch this card. This will display the strength of each of your abilities for reference when choosing your class. After accumulating skill points, you can learn skills that are available for your class. This is one of the key points in choosing occupations."
I'm nervous, what if I mess up? What if I regret this later on? What if becoming an adventurer prevents me from helping people? What'll happen to me? What happens to Spider-Man?
"… All right, thank you. Peter Parker-san, right? Let's see…Eh? Huh? What's with these numbers? Leaving the lower than average luck and rock bottom magic aside, the rest of your stats drastically exceed the average! Especially your intelligence, it's abnormally high! The only other ones I know of that has stats this high is Aqua-san! Who in the world are you…?"
"Another one?"
"It's almost unfair how strong they are."
Wow...I was honestly expecting worse.
"This… This is way beyond amazing! You would be the perfect mage if not for your low Mana reserves"
I swear I saw the crimson eyed girl at the back smirk.
"However, you may choose any other job! The holy knight with its strongest defense, Crusader; the swordsman with the strongest attack, Sword Master; and-wait, what's this?"
The counter lady then looked upset? Or was it concerned? She tapped my card again as her brows furrowed deeper
"This-this is new. You seem to have unlocked a different- no, unique class..."
She held up my card and showed it towards me, at the left side was a picture of two large eyes similar to my mask's eyes yet...darker, as well as a really wide and creepy grin. The right side of the image had the text "Venom" written on it.
"Umm...do you know what that is?"
"N-no, I haven't seen anything like this before. You should probably pick that in order to see what it is."
Is she seriously asking me to pick that sketchy thing as a class?! What if that kills me?! Everyone knows not to trust big creepy faces, and this one takes the cake for being the creepiest. She even admitted she didn't know what that was.
"Are you sure? What if that's dangerous?"
"No class is dangerous to any adventurer. Besides, you can always pick another class if you don't want it."
So I can change? That's reassuring. But that smile still creeps me out. I'm gonna pick it not because I trust her words, but because I want to see what it is.
"A-alright, I'll pick that job"
As I received my card with my name and the class 'Venom' written on it, I couldn't help but wonder what this class does. She said this was a unique class, but what exactly makes it unique?...apart from the creepy eyes and grin, of course.
"Congratulations Peter-san you are now officially an adventurer! I suggest you join a party to have people to work together with."
"No thanks, I work alone."
That was true. Even when Mr. Stark recruited me, I had always been working alone...though, I occasionally work with the police to handle situations out of my control.
"Well, it's up to you. Thank you for becoming an adventurer, the quest board is right over there if you want to take on a quest."
"Thanks!"
I waved goodbye to the counter lady as I made my way over to the bulletin board near the door. There were a ton of papers attached to it. Is this seriously how people take on quests?
Kill a pack of one shot bears in the woods.
Reward: 50,000 eris.
Have someone help me practice my spells on.
Requirements: high magic resistance and/or high vitality.
Reward: 10,000 eris per hour.
Kill 5 giant frogs outside of Axel within two days.
Reward: 5,000 eris each.
One shot bears? Giant Frogs? Spells? This world's both crazy and awesome at the same time. Awezy? Crasome? Though...these quests seem to involve killing a lot, I don't kill people so maybe this is okay? They're just animals right? Like killing cows for meat and killing bears to stop them from attacking anymore innocents...
I decided to pick the one shot bears since it seemed to be the highest paying one and maybe, just maybe, because I wanted to see what they were.
I tore the paper off of the board and walked back to the counter.
"Uhh...excuse me, I want to take this quest please."
"Oh! Of course, just hand it here please."
She replied holding out her hand, I complied and handed her the paper. She took it and stared at the quest, perplexed.
"Umm...I know you have really high stats, but are you sure you want to take an extremely dangerous and high level quest as your first? You don't even know what your new class does."
"Don't worry about me, and yes I want to take that quest"
Yes, even if I'm in a different world I am still Spider-Man. I still have my powers and my suit on me.
"Alright then. The pack was spotted near the forest west of here. Please exterminate them, they have been attacking several woodsmen resulting in a shortage of lumber."
"Of course. I'll be back soon!"
I shouted as I ran out out of the guild. The bears were attacking woodsmen in the woods west of here, got it! Just have to...have to...
I slowed down and walked slowly, following the signs out of Axel while thinking.
I actually have to kill now...back then I could have just webbed them up and let animal control take care of them but here? There was no animal control, no zoo keepers just me...am I really prepared to kill something? Just the thought of it makes me sick.
As I neared the gate, I saw a bench outside near the road. I sat down on it, the weight of the situation weighing down on me. Back then Ned and I would kill monsters in games without a second thought. Now that I had to do it personally though...
"How did those protagonists make killing seem so easy?"
I asked no one in particular. I took out my card to distract myself and stared at the smiling face. Geez, creepy much? I experimented with the card, pressing different parts of it to see what it would do. I tapped the tab thing with the word 'Skills' the card changed appearance and was replaced with two rows of words.
Awaken: Awakens your symbiote.
Requirements: None
Cost: 0 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Bond: Bonds you with your symbiote and allows you two to become one.
Requirements: Stable state of mind, Level 75
Cost: 25 skill points.
Awaken? Bond? Symbiote? Symbiosis meant two beings helping each other. How would that creepy smile help me? Awaken doesn't cost any skill points and the counter lady, Luna I think, said that no class could hurt an adventurer.
I tapped the Awaken row since it was the only one I can currently afford. It shone for a bit then the light died down. The row was blackened with a line drawn across the first row
"I wonder what that did..."
'Finally...'
"What the hell?!"
Something just spoke in my freaking ear! I quickly activated my metallic iron suit and jumped back to face...no one, not a single thing was in sight apart from the wall behind me.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
'I'm here.'
"Show yourself!"
I probably looked like an idiot shouting at nothing, but something just talked to me in a low, raspy voice even though I'm alone. I looked around, waiting for them to show itself, then I felt it. Something on my shoulder. I immediately looked at it and saw him.
It wasn't human, that's for sure. It's face was exactly like the face on my card. It's color was completely black save for it's white eyes and yellowish teeth. It's body was non-existent and was attached to me through my right shoulder.
"What. The. Fuck?"
Understandably, I freaked out and gave my manliest scream...no, I did not scream like a little girl no matter what people say in the future. I definitely did NOT shriek like a little girl.
'I am Venom...'
"Venom, right...so, what are you?"
'I'm your class.'
"Class?"
'Yes.'
What? He was my Class?! How? And more importantly, why? The counter lady said that my class, "Venom", was new and unique. Why was I chosen?
"And what are you exactly? And I'm not talking about you being my class."
'I am a symbiote. We choose our hosts carefully, and I chose you.'
"Why?"
'Hmmm...?'
"Why'd you choose me?"
'You are special...you are Spider-Man'
How? That was the only question in my head. How did he know I was Spider-Man? According to Eris, I was in another world. A world where Spider-Man doesn't exist, so either Eris lied to me, which is very unlikely, or Venom had followed me from my world...
"How do you know about me being Spider-Man?"
'I know all about you Peter Parker. Who you are, why you do what you do. We know everything about you.'
Okay...this was seriously creeping me out. My class. Class. As in something you choose as a profession is talking to me, telling me that it knows everything about me.
'Don't worry I don't want to hurt you. I only want to help you.'
"Help me?"
'Yes...I'm a symbiote. We help our hosts. All you need to do is to tell us what we need to do.'
"Really? Cause if that's the case what can you do?"
'Stick out your hand and observe...'
Venom then slid back into my shoulder. It felt weird. Painless, but weird. I retracted my metallic suit back into a spider shaped logo and did as I was told. All of a sudden my arm elongated to the shape of a sword and turned black.
"Woah...!"
'This ability is called 'Sword' all you need to do is say the word in order for me to activate it.'
"Alright, this just went from creepy to full on awesome. What else you got?"
We spent the next several minutes trying out Venom's abilities. Turns out he was able to manifest his body into my own overlapping my arms with his black substance and creating weapons such as swords, and clawed fingers. He could also press his hands on the ground and use his fingers as spikes protruding from the ground. All in all, it was pretty awesome.
I quickly took out my adventurer card and went back towards the skill section. Several more rows appeared below the original two with "Awaken" crossed out.
̶A̶w̶a̶k̶e̶n̶:̶ ̶A̶w̶a̶k̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶y̶m̶b̶i̶o̶t̶e̶.̶
̶R̶e̶q̶u̶i̶r̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶:̶ ̶N̶o̶n̶e̶
̶C̶o̶s̶t̶:̶ ̶0̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶s̶.̶
̶-̶-̶-̶
Bond: Bonds you with your symbiote and allows you two to become one.
Requirements: Stable state of mind, Level 75
Cost: 25 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Ground Spikes: Place your hand on the ground and summon a wall of spikes to skewer your enemies.
Requirements: None
Cost: 2 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Scythe: Turn your arms into scythes and unleash fury on your enemies.
Requirements: None
Cost: 2 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Devour: Consume your foes and absorb their abilities for your use.
Requirements: Level 40
Cost: 9 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Whiplash: Turn your arms into whips and clear groups of enemies with ease.
Requirements: None
Cost: 9 skill points.
̶-̶-̶-̶
Tendril Terror: Have several tendrils erupt from your body and impale your enemies.
Requirements: None
Cost: 10 skill points.
"That's awesome"
We had just finished exploring all of his different abilities and had reduced the spot in front of us into a tiny crater.
'Indeed. Now, shall we kill those bears?'
"Are you sure we have to kill them?"
'In this world it's kill or be killed. Those bears are just bears nothing more, nothing less.'
"Yeah, but they're still alive. You said you knew everything about me, right? Then you should now how I feel about killing."
'They attack and kill humans. They destroy villages and tear apart families. We would be doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. Who knows how many families they tore apart, how many children become orphans because of them.'
"Well...yeah. But still-"
'They're just animals. They don't care about anything. They simply exist to eat, kill, and mate. If we kill those bears, who knows how many people we saved, how many people they would have killed if not for us.'
He has a point. Even though I hate killing, bears were simply animals. They also attack and kill people. If we were to kill this pack of bears, we could save a lot of people that the bear would have attacked.
"Fine. But that does not mean I'm fine with killing. I'm only doing this to prevent them from killing other people, got it?"
'That's fine with me.'
"Alright. let's go!"
The journey to the forest was shorter than expected. The forest was only a few kilometers away, meaning we managed to walk towards it in less than an hour.
As we got nearer, we saw the bears...
"Woah... they're huge!"
The beats were easily two meter high and a meter across. They were busy eating the corpse of something that resembles a giant frog.
"Ew. Looks like you were right."
I quickly put on my metallic spider suit and walked neared them.
"Hey, Venom."
'Yes?'
"Should I try out my divine relic?"
'Yes. The more we know about our divine relics, the better.'
"Great!"
I immediately took out my divine relic and inspected it. It was rocky in texture and round in shape. In the middle were four symbols that I can only assume as some kind of strange language.
Right, well...how do I use this? Does this come with some kind of divine manual? Maybe this symbols have something to do with activating it?
I traced my finger over the symbols, hoping to garner a reaction from it. Long story short, I failed. Maybe it needs verbal confirmation?
'Hmm...try pointing it towards the bear.'
Venom popped out of my shoulder and spoke.
Following his advice, I pointed the symbols towards the bears.
"Doesn't work."
'Maybe it needs verbal confirmation?'
"I'll try it. Hell fire!"
"Wait, fire?"
Then it happened, A giant string of flame erupted from the symbols and landed smack dab in the middle of the pack. I suddenly felt myself being drained as the flames began flickering out. Although, it wiped out seven out of the nine bears on the valley...as expected. What was not expected however was the ear piercing screech that suddenly erupted.
'SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH'
"What the hell!?"
I covered my ears in pain as Venom's ear splitting screech echoed in my head.
'Stop!'
The flames were gone completely, and the two remaining bears began approaching us.
Uh, oh. This isn't good.
"Venom, you alright?"
'Fire...burns...no more...fire.'
Crap. He couldn't handle the heat. He's probably out cold right now.
"Great. Now I gotta deal with these two Winnie the Pooh rejects..."
The two bears began to circle closer, and closer, before both of them started running towards me with their mouths wide open as they tried to bite me. I quickly jumped over them while webbing one of them in the eye and attaching a web towards the torso of the other. Using my momentum, I pulled myself towards the unblinded bear and punched it in the face. It roared in pain and lashed out at me. I swiftly dodged it's attack and leapt back as far as I could. The bear began running towards me faster than normal. I was forced to dodge once more as the bear raised one of it's paws and swung at me. It didn't hit me, but it did cut the tree behind me in half.
No wonder these guys were called "One Shot Bear" they're strong enough to kill normal people in one shot. Thankfully, I'm not a normal person. I'm a guy who can dodge each and every single on of their attacks with ease. I swung my fist towards the bear with all my strength, hoping to knock it out immediately when a tingling sensation suddenly erupted from the back of my head. I quickly whipped my head around just in time to see the second bear coming at me. It somehow removed my webbing from it's eyes and was now lunging at me from behind. I quickly backflipped over it, sending it crashing into the second bear. The impact sent them both of them flying back.
"Hey, hey, hey! One at a time, fellas! There's enough fists here to hit the both of you with!"
'Use me...'
"What?"
'Use my abilities!'
Venom's head suddenly appeared on my shoulder. It was smaller than before and his eyes were narrower.
"Venom? What happened? Are you alri-"
'Focus on the bears! Use the abilities I showed you earlier and finish this!'
"Right. Sword!"
Venom's black substance covered one of my arms and turned into a razor sharp sword.
The bears, not wasting any time, both lunged at me at the same time. I sidestepped both of them and jumped in the air. I webbed the foot of one of the bears and yanked it. The bear, having it's foot suddenly yanked upwards, tripped and rolled several meters before grinding to a halt. The other bear stopped, turned to towards me, and swung it's paws at me in quick succession. I dodged every single one of it's strikes with ease and landed on the ground.
"Right. My turn."
I ran towards the standing bear at full speed and punched it in the face-
'Why the hell did you punch it?! Use your sword!'
"Wha- Oh, right. I forgot I had this..."
'H- How do you forget having a sword in your hand?'
"I don't normally use them"
'It's a sword.'
"I know."
'Stab it! Use the sword to stab the bear!'
"Can't I just, like, knock them out or-"
'It's attacking, watch out!'
The bear I punched in the face regained it's footing and was now lunging at me. I quickly bent my arm-sword combo into a thrusting position and waited for the bear to get close.
'Not yet...not yet...'
"Yes Venom, I can see that."
The tingling sensation in my head appeared once more, telling me to move. I ignored it. The bear was now getting closer.
'Almost there...'
Sixty meters...
Tingling sensation's getting stronger.
Thirty...
It's beginning to hurt my head.
Twenty...
Ten...
Now it's roaring in my head, giving me a splitting headache.
'Now!'
As soon as the bear raised it's paw in the air, I thrusted my sword-arm into it's chest with all my might. My arm slid into the bear's flesh like knife through butter while making a horrible squelching sound. God, I hate this. The bear howled in pain before dropping down to the ground dead...this was the first I took the life of something other than an insect. I feel a bit sick. I wonder if I could've done something - anything, else part from Gah! Shit! I was too distracted! The other bear struck me in the side while I was internally monologuing. Stupid. Didn't you learn anything from the movies? Never monologue. Especially not when you're in the middle of fighting a giant bear! My metal suit took most of the damage, but holy shit, these things hit hard!
The force of it's swing sent me flying through the air. I quickly activated the legs on my suit to cushion my landing and stabilize me. The metallic spider legs on my suit did it's job as I was back on my feet in no time. The bear looked at my suit in curiosity as it let out a loud roar.
One down, one to go. Time to go on the offensive. I began running towards it as fast as I could. The bear did the same. Just as we were about to collide, I used my webbing to slide underneath the bear. As soon as I was out from under the bear, I propelled myself into the air using my metal legs and webbed it's head. I used said webbing to pull myself towards the bear and kick it's head as hard as I could. The bear howled in pain and retaliated by swinging it's paw at me, which I easily dodged. Before the bear could do anything else, I webbed it in it's eyes, blinding it once more. Using a combination of agility, speed, and my webs, I dodged, weaved, and slid through several it's attacks with ease. After several more minutes of fighting and spent webbing, I finally managed to incapacitate the bear by trapping it in my webs.
"Right that should about do it"
I announced as I landed on the ground. The bear struggled helplessly against the webs it was trapped in.
'Not yet.'
"Venom, you alright? You sounded pretty bad back there..."
'I'm alright...just don't put us near fire. It's one of the only things we're weak against.'
Of all the things he could be weak against, it had to be fire...why? Why?! He could've been weak to electricity, or tree sap, why did it have to be fire?! What's next, he's weak to loud sounds or something? This basically makes it nigh impossible for me to use my divine relic lest I burn Venom to death.
"Right! Fire bad. Got it...wait, what do you mean "not yet""
'We still have to kill it.'
"Oh, right. Yeah. Sword!"
Instantly my arm turned into a black razor sharp sword as I approached the trapped bear.
"Just for the record, this isn't personal."
I said right before I plunged the sword into it's heart.