p class="MsoNormal""Adding the balance from last month and readjusting it for the new tax, this would be a total of 26 sluggers' rounds." A man put a worn box of carton with the cover saying "Emperor Mercy Bar – Kiaros edition" on the wooden counter. "All of them military-grade boom rounds, capable of going through the strongest body armor" The man under the long coat stay silence, but an air of discomfort was already excluded "What? That's it, the wolf you brought here only worth that much. Twenty-six is a generous price already, I also have to feed my family you know." The dark hair man behind the counter replied, his face contorted in annoyance and irritation. His bionic eye was glowing red as he spoke, adding another layer of intimidation to his word. The fact that he's over six feet tall and built like a Nomos bear also help with his grayer "negotiation"./p
p class="MsoNormal""The last one I brought here sold for thirty. Moros, you were the one who bought it." The cloaked man replied evenly, without a hint of being intimidated by the imposing merchant. With a frame that barely touch five foot six, he was a head shorter than the merchant and considerably less threatening as a result. If only that stub rifle on his back was invisible, then he would be your average citizen, albeit a weirdly dressed one. His silent demeanor, the amount of prey he brought back and his uncanny ability to disappear when he wanted, all contribute to him building up a name for himself out here in the Perimeter/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do you think that it's easy to secure a route to the Inner District?" The strong-built merchant signed, bringing his hand up to his forehead in order to re-adjust his fallen braids of hair. The man was one of Moguli descent; a strange mix of steppe dweller consisting of both violent raiders and cultured philosophers. So, as a result, Batu the III was a mix of both savage strength, endurance as well as shrewd business choices. And this time, he was trying to keep the price low "After the fiasco with a noble house entourage getting flanked and humiliated publicly by those dumb gangers, it's sufficient to say that the Inner security just got bumped up a notch. It's already five times more impressive than the outpost in the Frontier. I need to use my network of connections as well as several well-placed little trinkets and gifts to carve out a trading route."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thirty-four military grade rounds, half of them explosive and half of them penetrator." That's more like it. "Besides, this wolf is significantly larger than the last one, landing you with more fur as well as its entire bone structures." The cloaked one spoke up "Beside, this is one of those rare intact one that I shot it with a penetrator round to the forehead. Surely you can get a high price if you took it to the auction house."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Too much, twenty-eight Is the highest I can give you right now." Batu III responded, fiddling with his wooden abacus as well as some brown note – his accounting paper for sure. "I could add a few more rounds if you want to take local Smith work."/p
p class="MsoNormal""How about thirty, but I'll take 25 upfront and the rest after it sell in the auction?" The cloaked man drove another bargain, this time taking a bit of a risk here. "Also, Smith make terrible ammunition, the only good thing about his store is that he's relatively competent with accessories."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Let me think a bit." Batu III dozed off in his thought, no doubt finding way to lower the price. But, as annoying as it sounds, he knew this hunter well enough to guess his reaction if he tried to lower the price again. Hell, it's extremely hard to deal with a customer like him; always silent, always sulking under the shadow but violent as a mad dog when needed. That's how the local thug lost his right arm and lower jaw after all./p
p class="MsoNormal""Sure, I'll give you 26 in advance." Finally coming to his decision, Batu III pushed the carton box toward the cloaked hunterspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"The rest depend entirely on the result of the auction, you hear me? If it's worthless then don't expect me to pay you the rest"/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Silently, the hunter took the case of ammunition before leaving fading into the sea of people that are living their life here on the street. The sight of a cloaked man was not something out of the ordinary for the citizen, so most people didn't pay attention to the quick-paced hunter. The man under the cloak steady his breathing and start gaining speed as he disappeared from the bustling street of the Perimeter in just moments./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The cloaked figure arrived at a shabby, worn down two-stories house as the sun came up, illuminating the gold-plated spires that served as the palace of the Vandelmount family. Even from here, one could notice the extravagance of Inner Opal, gigantic habitational spires coated in the reflective surfaces stretching as high as the eye can see. "Whoosh" An ear shattering sound drummed out, nearly throwing the figure to the ground, shattered nearby window and blowing all the papers and garbage away. A particularly blocky and rugged commercial air plane with its ten meters long cargos passed through at speed exceeding the sound barrier. It was flying low, barely above the houses of the Perimeters and it's engines was throwing up black smoke all over the place. Escorted by two Valkyrie VTOL fighters, it must be something very importance concerning the safety of the city, or something concerning the nobility./p
p class="MsoNormal""Maybe it's about what Batu said about the recent assault on the nobility." the cloaked figure thought, before returning to his brisk walk. "Can't they just let other people make a living? It's hard enough to caught some wild beast without calling attention to yourself, now even selling those ran the risk of the blue blood miltia snooping around."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The cargo plane arrived by areophane traffic lane back and forth between the mayor cities and ports of this planet, forming a networks of intercontinental trading routes. The five great families controlled the largest cities on the planet, regulating everything from agriculture products to military hard wares, therefore, they are the de facto leaders, especially when the Planetary Governor never show up for any public events or raise new edicts. He was practically a myth, since his last appearance coincide with a solar eclipse forty moon ago – an eccentric governor, one could say./p
p class="MsoNormal"Opal is the second largest city on the planet and the third most heavily defended one, an Proto-Hive if what those off-world man said is the truth. It's separated into two main part, the Inner District where the nobility and their retainer reside and the Outer District where Imperial bureaucracy and various manufactorium officers took their residence. And well, the slum and shanty towns that make up the Perimeter is not considered a part of the city./p
p class="MsoNormal"The figure emerged into long strip of land directly opposite the wall separating Outer Opal with the Perimeter area. The ten-meter-tall wall stood like a towering behemoth compared to the relatively small houses in the surrounding Perimeter zone, built from blend of ferrocrete. The foot-thick wall as well as the weapon emplacement served as the line of defense protecting the metroplex from being assaulted by giant enraged beasts during the rare rampages. Well, as there had been no rampage in the last forty years according to the elderly, the wall presumably stood as the reminder for people living in the Perimeter to mind their actions. It's the separation line between city dwellers and struggling Perimeter dwellers, the constant reminder to the lowly, dirty scavenger inhibiting Opal surrounding that they are not wanted in here. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"It was another ten minute before the cloaked figure turned into a corner, leading to a small cobblestone-lined street. The track was relatively well-maintained, the actual living plants and the occasional red and gold Imperial heraldry do brighten up the terribly dull morning. The aerial pollution and industrial smog produced by Opal sometime managed to block out the sky, leaving a dull, stormy, depressing month with the occasional chance of acidic rain – terrible weather for everyone, really. As the cloaked man walk on the long street, other people were shuffling around, trying desperately to etch out their own little life in the shanty town, often with little to no efforts./p
p class="MsoNormal""I should count myself lucky among the residents here" the figure thought, brushing aside several small children; his hand was on his purse – can't exactly relax when you are near small child. "At least we had a place to call home and warm meals several times a week. That and the fact that I was born with both my arms and legs as well as a strong constitution to actually hunt something."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He passed a man with his lower body missing, replaced by crude augmetic woven brom brass ring, tint cogs and wooden surface. The poor bastard was walking around like a drunken madman, his face contorted in obvious pain; sometime he managed to bark out insult to everyone on the street. As expected, no one wants to deal with a slumbering cripple, lest they go insane and suddenly violently assault other. It was an unspoken rule concerning limb replacements in this zone, that the owner slowly become insane, their mind degraded from having low quality augmetic installed style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"The cloaked figure just strugged his head before moving on with a brisk pace – no need to waste time here, he was awaited somewhere else and he would never miss it. After two more turns, two ganger that was mugging a pudgy looking fellow and a short flight of stair, he stopped by a two story house in the far end of the street. The house was on the verge of decay, the exterior were already cracking, the stone foundation was placed several hundreds of years ago now sport miniature fixtures. But those minor flaws in architecture integrity doesn't change the fact that the stone-brick had a comforting air surrounding it – the warmth of the hearth, of home. inserting the digi-key into the door frame and started turning a series of numbers on the rotary combination lock./p
p class="MsoNormal"Six, four, nine, seven, two, six/p
p class="MsoNormal"The 6-digit span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"The ringing of the bell when the door opened is a calming and soothing sound, the cloaked man thought as he walked over the raised door frame. "Home sweet home" he thought before taking off the oversized cloak and the hunting style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Woden, are you home?" A female voice rang out from the second floor. A few moments later, a young woman descend from the stone staircase, her hand still holding the bundle of scroll that smell off low quality ink. She was wearing a worn out white dress that had lost most of with/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm back from the shop, sis. And I brought some fresh meat for today and tomorrow meals too. A Cyclopian rabbit - your favorite stew ingredient, some fresh vegetable brought straight from the North East garden" the cloaked man cheerily announces his presence. With practiced ease, Woden Benedictus took off his long cloak and put it on the coat hanging stand near the door before taking off his hunting boot. Changing into the more comfortable wooden sandal, he hauled his catch into the small kitchen, where his sister was already waiting./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, thank you so much." The taller woman pulled him into a quick hug, her beautiful features came dangerously close to the boy face. Any normal boy would blush at such a thing, but not Woden, for this is nothing out of the ordinary for him, as this is par the course as far as his sister go. Hugging, kisses on the cheek is just the normal ways she expresses her affection./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hey sis, cool off with the hugging, I'm not a baby you know." He deftly evaded her hand, smirking a little. "Also, you might want to get a chance to wash your clothes before cooking or returning to your work. My clothes are pretty dirty now, just went through the lower street and the sky is dark with pollution again" Woden relied without flinching a bit, his eyes was focused on taking off his leather armor and belts. This display of affection was nothing out of ordinary within the house, especially when their parents had die in a tragic accident involving faulty equipment and poor management five years prior./p
p class="MsoNormal""Okay, Woden, let sis cook you a hearty meal then." His sister replied, already taking the carcass of the rabbit and the vegetable into the kitchen with her. "I'm gonna make sure you love this feast, oh, I'm brimming with excitement already. Also, can you put away the clothes on the drying rack? It would rain later in the afternoon today, and I don't want to go through the trouble washing them again" Her voice got more distant and disappeared around corner – she probably went out to the back yard in order to skin the rabbit without staining the kitchen./p
p class="MsoNormal""What a hopeless sister" Woden signed and shake his head before climbing up the flight of stair. Taking a pair of new clothes, he came back down to the ground floor before using the bath to his heart content. It had already been five days since he last washed himself, too concerned with tracking and killing that battle wolf to care about hygienic need. He was caked in mud and probably 10 other unhygienic substances. Lucky for him, he had a quick bath before coming back home, so he didn't scare his sister off with his own smell./p
p class="MsoNormal"Letting the warm water cascade over his body, the thirteen years old boy felt his tense muscle relaxed as the stream of water washed away all the impurities of his body, cleansing him of worldly desires. His mind registered the bliss and went along with it, "truly divine." He thought about it when climbing gout of the shower and changing to a set of indoor clothing. While he was resting on the bed for a while waiting for lunch, Woden fell into the embrace of sweet dreams, partly due to exhaustion and partly due to something else. Something that would bet him branded as a heretic and a psyker, which mean that a gruelsome fate would await him; even if he got pass the w./p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"In his sleep, a strange form of energy suffuses his form, like the embrace of the Empyrean. Reaching into the deepest part of his physical body and brought out potential that should not been tapped into until two more years in the future. What be accurately described as "sparks of power" erupted from within himself, improving, reinforcing his body beyond his current limit. A tedious and possibly dangerous process no doubt, but in truth, this is something akin to a boon from the Golden man upstairs. After all, you would need power of all form and kind in order to survive in this galaxy that only know of wars and terror/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Imagine if you will, you stretch a rubber band, an ordinary rubber band produced from the stack of documents the Ministorium use to bind their document. It could be stretched out by a large margin and returned to its initial position, the original size wouldn't change much. Now, if that rubber band is stretched daily, slowly but surely, it would become larger and sturdier. What the strange energy was doing to Woden muscles was something of the same principle; damage and heal, heal and damge down again. The muscles fused, increase on the strength as well as the mass of them, creating a stronger build. The process repeated more than a hundred time, then repeat more than a thousand time, again and again. The cyclical process that contributed to normal, daily muscle building was hyper-compressed into only a few hours, defying conventional physics/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"But that was not all of the alteration. Deep within, some nerves were touch upon, rewired so that the dexterity and speed would increase by a certain margin. Training, practice memory that shouldn't have exist come to the unconscious mind, welding themselves into the ingrain muscle memory without encountering much resistance. The almost mystical muscle memory helps his body to come to peace with the newfound physical capability./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Now, among the denizen of the Warp, Tzeetchian are well versed in the lore of magic, rituals as well as mutations. But this would baffle the mind of them, with only a handful know what happening. If a Greater Daemon of Tzeetch witnessed this phenomenon and attempting a powerful Divination ritual, it would be able to discern the true nature of those flicking Kaleidoscopic "sparks of power" are the implication that the it would bring./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Those are "Future", to be more specific, "burnt out shade of the future that might happen". It would have brought a whole host of problem for Woden Benedictus what enhance him true nature is revealed. But now, that is something to be concerned about./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"A slight tattered blanket was place on Woden's sleeping form, his sister had pulled it over him "Sweet dream, little brother." The older women had a smile on her face as she tucked her younger brother in, letting him sleep through the rest of the day./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal"Name: Woden Benedictusspan style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAge: 13/p
p class="MsoNormal"Archetype: Hunter span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanXP: 152/179 (+29)/p
p class="MsoNormal"Attribute: 56/p
p class="MsoNormal"Strength 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanToughness 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAgility 3-4span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanInitiative 3/p
p class="MsoNormal"Willpower 3span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanIntellect 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanFellowship 2/p
p class="MsoNormal"Skills: 56/p
p class="MsoNormal"Athletics 2; Awareness 3; Ballistic skill 4; Investigation 2; Survival 2, Weapon skill 2/p
p class="MsoNormal"Talents: 40/p
p class="MsoNormal"Deadshot, Silent span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"Equipment: Slug Rifles (scope + special bullets), hunting knife, hunting gear, span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal""The last one I brought here sold for thirty. Moros, you were the one who bought it." The cloaked man replied evenly, without a hint of being intimidated by the imposing merchant. With a frame that barely touch five foot six, he was a head shorter than the merchant and considerably less threatening as a result. If only that stub rifle on his back was invisible, then he would be your average citizen, albeit a weirdly dressed one. His silent demeanor, the amount of prey he brought back and his uncanny ability to disappear when he wanted, all contribute to him building up a name for himself out here in the Perimeter/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do you think that it's easy to secure a route to the Inner District?" The strong-built merchant signed, bringing his hand up to his forehead in order to re-adjust his fallen braids of hair. The man was one of Moguli descent; a strange mix of steppe dweller consisting of both violent raiders and cultured philosophers. So, as a result, Batu the III was a mix of both savage strength, endurance as well as shrewd business choices. And this time, he was trying to keep the price low "After the fiasco with a noble house entourage getting flanked and humiliated publicly by those dumb gangers, it's sufficient to say that the Inner security just got bumped up a notch. It's already five times more impressive than the outpost in the Frontier. I need to use my network of connections as well as several well-placed little trinkets and gifts to carve out a trading route."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thirty-four military grade rounds, half of them explosive and half of them penetrator." That's more like it. "Besides, this wolf is significantly larger than the last one, landing you with more fur as well as its entire bone structures." The cloaked one spoke up "Beside, this is one of those rare intact one that I shot it with a penetrator round to the forehead. Surely you can get a high price if you took it to the auction house."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Too much, twenty-eight Is the highest I can give you right now." Batu III responded, fiddling with his wooden abacus as well as some brown note – his accounting paper for sure. "I could add a few more rounds if you want to take local Smith work."/p
p class="MsoNormal""How about thirty, but I'll take 25 upfront and the rest after it sell in the auction?" The cloaked man drove another bargain, this time taking a bit of a risk here. "Also, Smith make terrible ammunition, the only good thing about his store is that he's relatively competent with accessories."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Let me think a bit." Batu III dozed off in his thought, no doubt finding way to lower the price. But, as annoying as it sounds, he knew this hunter well enough to guess his reaction if he tried to lower the price again. Hell, it's extremely hard to deal with a customer like him; always silent, always sulking under the shadow but violent as a mad dog when needed. That's how the local thug lost his right arm and lower jaw after all./p
p class="MsoNormal""Sure, I'll give you 26 in advance." Finally coming to his decision, Batu III pushed the carton box toward the cloaked hunterspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"The rest depend entirely on the result of the auction, you hear me? If it's worthless then don't expect me to pay you the rest"/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Silently, the hunter took the case of ammunition before leaving fading into the sea of people that are living their life here on the street. The sight of a cloaked man was not something out of the ordinary for the citizen, so most people didn't pay attention to the quick-paced hunter. The man under the cloak steady his breathing and start gaining speed as he disappeared from the bustling street of the Perimeter in just moments./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The cloaked figure arrived at a shabby, worn down two-stories house as the sun came up, illuminating the gold-plated spires that served as the palace of the Vandelmount family. Even from here, one could notice the extravagance of Inner Opal, gigantic habitational spires coated in the reflective surfaces stretching as high as the eye can see. "Whoosh" An ear shattering sound drummed out, nearly throwing the figure to the ground, shattered nearby window and blowing all the papers and garbage away. A particularly blocky and rugged commercial air plane with its ten meters long cargos passed through at speed exceeding the sound barrier. It was flying low, barely above the houses of the Perimeters and it's engines was throwing up black smoke all over the place. Escorted by two Valkyrie VTOL fighters, it must be something very importance concerning the safety of the city, or something concerning the nobility./p
p class="MsoNormal""Maybe it's about what Batu said about the recent assault on the nobility." the cloaked figure thought, before returning to his brisk walk. "Can't they just let other people make a living? It's hard enough to caught some wild beast without calling attention to yourself, now even selling those ran the risk of the blue blood miltia snooping around."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The cargo plane arrived by areophane traffic lane back and forth between the mayor cities and ports of this planet, forming a networks of intercontinental trading routes. The five great families controlled the largest cities on the planet, regulating everything from agriculture products to military hard wares, therefore, they are the de facto leaders, especially when the Planetary Governor never show up for any public events or raise new edicts. He was practically a myth, since his last appearance coincide with a solar eclipse forty moon ago – an eccentric governor, one could say./p
p class="MsoNormal"Opal is the second largest city on the planet and the third most heavily defended one, an Proto-Hive if what those off-world man said is the truth. It's separated into two main part, the Inner District where the nobility and their retainer reside and the Outer District where Imperial bureaucracy and various manufactorium officers took their residence. And well, the slum and shanty towns that make up the Perimeter is not considered a part of the city./p
p class="MsoNormal"The figure emerged into long strip of land directly opposite the wall separating Outer Opal with the Perimeter area. The ten-meter-tall wall stood like a towering behemoth compared to the relatively small houses in the surrounding Perimeter zone, built from blend of ferrocrete. The foot-thick wall as well as the weapon emplacement served as the line of defense protecting the metroplex from being assaulted by giant enraged beasts during the rare rampages. Well, as there had been no rampage in the last forty years according to the elderly, the wall presumably stood as the reminder for people living in the Perimeter to mind their actions. It's the separation line between city dwellers and struggling Perimeter dwellers, the constant reminder to the lowly, dirty scavenger inhibiting Opal surrounding that they are not wanted in here. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"It was another ten minute before the cloaked figure turned into a corner, leading to a small cobblestone-lined street. The track was relatively well-maintained, the actual living plants and the occasional red and gold Imperial heraldry do brighten up the terribly dull morning. The aerial pollution and industrial smog produced by Opal sometime managed to block out the sky, leaving a dull, stormy, depressing month with the occasional chance of acidic rain – terrible weather for everyone, really. As the cloaked man walk on the long street, other people were shuffling around, trying desperately to etch out their own little life in the shanty town, often with little to no efforts./p
p class="MsoNormal""I should count myself lucky among the residents here" the figure thought, brushing aside several small children; his hand was on his purse – can't exactly relax when you are near small child. "At least we had a place to call home and warm meals several times a week. That and the fact that I was born with both my arms and legs as well as a strong constitution to actually hunt something."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He passed a man with his lower body missing, replaced by crude augmetic woven brom brass ring, tint cogs and wooden surface. The poor bastard was walking around like a drunken madman, his face contorted in obvious pain; sometime he managed to bark out insult to everyone on the street. As expected, no one wants to deal with a slumbering cripple, lest they go insane and suddenly violently assault other. It was an unspoken rule concerning limb replacements in this zone, that the owner slowly become insane, their mind degraded from having low quality augmetic installed style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"The cloaked figure just strugged his head before moving on with a brisk pace – no need to waste time here, he was awaited somewhere else and he would never miss it. After two more turns, two ganger that was mugging a pudgy looking fellow and a short flight of stair, he stopped by a two story house in the far end of the street. The house was on the verge of decay, the exterior were already cracking, the stone foundation was placed several hundreds of years ago now sport miniature fixtures. But those minor flaws in architecture integrity doesn't change the fact that the stone-brick had a comforting air surrounding it – the warmth of the hearth, of home. inserting the digi-key into the door frame and started turning a series of numbers on the rotary combination lock./p
p class="MsoNormal"Six, four, nine, seven, two, six/p
p class="MsoNormal"The 6-digit span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"The ringing of the bell when the door opened is a calming and soothing sound, the cloaked man thought as he walked over the raised door frame. "Home sweet home" he thought before taking off the oversized cloak and the hunting style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Woden, are you home?" A female voice rang out from the second floor. A few moments later, a young woman descend from the stone staircase, her hand still holding the bundle of scroll that smell off low quality ink. She was wearing a worn out white dress that had lost most of with/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm back from the shop, sis. And I brought some fresh meat for today and tomorrow meals too. A Cyclopian rabbit - your favorite stew ingredient, some fresh vegetable brought straight from the North East garden" the cloaked man cheerily announces his presence. With practiced ease, Woden Benedictus took off his long cloak and put it on the coat hanging stand near the door before taking off his hunting boot. Changing into the more comfortable wooden sandal, he hauled his catch into the small kitchen, where his sister was already waiting./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, thank you so much." The taller woman pulled him into a quick hug, her beautiful features came dangerously close to the boy face. Any normal boy would blush at such a thing, but not Woden, for this is nothing out of the ordinary for him, as this is par the course as far as his sister go. Hugging, kisses on the cheek is just the normal ways she expresses her affection./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hey sis, cool off with the hugging, I'm not a baby you know." He deftly evaded her hand, smirking a little. "Also, you might want to get a chance to wash your clothes before cooking or returning to your work. My clothes are pretty dirty now, just went through the lower street and the sky is dark with pollution again" Woden relied without flinching a bit, his eyes was focused on taking off his leather armor and belts. This display of affection was nothing out of ordinary within the house, especially when their parents had die in a tragic accident involving faulty equipment and poor management five years prior./p
p class="MsoNormal""Okay, Woden, let sis cook you a hearty meal then." His sister replied, already taking the carcass of the rabbit and the vegetable into the kitchen with her. "I'm gonna make sure you love this feast, oh, I'm brimming with excitement already. Also, can you put away the clothes on the drying rack? It would rain later in the afternoon today, and I don't want to go through the trouble washing them again" Her voice got more distant and disappeared around corner – she probably went out to the back yard in order to skin the rabbit without staining the kitchen./p
p class="MsoNormal""What a hopeless sister" Woden signed and shake his head before climbing up the flight of stair. Taking a pair of new clothes, he came back down to the ground floor before using the bath to his heart content. It had already been five days since he last washed himself, too concerned with tracking and killing that battle wolf to care about hygienic need. He was caked in mud and probably 10 other unhygienic substances. Lucky for him, he had a quick bath before coming back home, so he didn't scare his sister off with his own smell./p
p class="MsoNormal"Letting the warm water cascade over his body, the thirteen years old boy felt his tense muscle relaxed as the stream of water washed away all the impurities of his body, cleansing him of worldly desires. His mind registered the bliss and went along with it, "truly divine." He thought about it when climbing gout of the shower and changing to a set of indoor clothing. While he was resting on the bed for a while waiting for lunch, Woden fell into the embrace of sweet dreams, partly due to exhaustion and partly due to something else. Something that would bet him branded as a heretic and a psyker, which mean that a gruelsome fate would await him; even if he got pass the w./p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal" /p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"In his sleep, a strange form of energy suffuses his form, like the embrace of the Empyrean. Reaching into the deepest part of his physical body and brought out potential that should not been tapped into until two more years in the future. What be accurately described as "sparks of power" erupted from within himself, improving, reinforcing his body beyond his current limit. A tedious and possibly dangerous process no doubt, but in truth, this is something akin to a boon from the Golden man upstairs. After all, you would need power of all form and kind in order to survive in this galaxy that only know of wars and terror/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Imagine if you will, you stretch a rubber band, an ordinary rubber band produced from the stack of documents the Ministorium use to bind their document. It could be stretched out by a large margin and returned to its initial position, the original size wouldn't change much. Now, if that rubber band is stretched daily, slowly but surely, it would become larger and sturdier. What the strange energy was doing to Woden muscles was something of the same principle; damage and heal, heal and damge down again. The muscles fused, increase on the strength as well as the mass of them, creating a stronger build. The process repeated more than a hundred time, then repeat more than a thousand time, again and again. The cyclical process that contributed to normal, daily muscle building was hyper-compressed into only a few hours, defying conventional physics/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"But that was not all of the alteration. Deep within, some nerves were touch upon, rewired so that the dexterity and speed would increase by a certain margin. Training, practice memory that shouldn't have exist come to the unconscious mind, welding themselves into the ingrain muscle memory without encountering much resistance. The almost mystical muscle memory helps his body to come to peace with the newfound physical capability./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Now, among the denizen of the Warp, Tzeetchian are well versed in the lore of magic, rituals as well as mutations. But this would baffle the mind of them, with only a handful know what happening. If a Greater Daemon of Tzeetch witnessed this phenomenon and attempting a powerful Divination ritual, it would be able to discern the true nature of those flicking Kaleidoscopic "sparks of power" are the implication that the it would bring./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Those are "Future", to be more specific, "burnt out shade of the future that might happen". It would have brought a whole host of problem for Woden Benedictus what enhance him true nature is revealed. But now, that is something to be concerned about./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"A slight tattered blanket was place on Woden's sleeping form, his sister had pulled it over him "Sweet dream, little brother." The older women had a smile on her face as she tucked her younger brother in, letting him sleep through the rest of the day./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;" /p
/div
p class="MsoNormal"Name: Woden Benedictusspan style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAge: 13/p
p class="MsoNormal"Archetype: Hunter span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanXP: 152/179 (+29)/p
p class="MsoNormal"Attribute: 56/p
p class="MsoNormal"Strength 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanToughness 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAgility 3-4span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanInitiative 3/p
p class="MsoNormal"Willpower 3span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanIntellect 2span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanFellowship 2/p
p class="MsoNormal"Skills: 56/p
p class="MsoNormal"Athletics 2; Awareness 3; Ballistic skill 4; Investigation 2; Survival 2, Weapon skill 2/p
p class="MsoNormal"Talents: 40/p
p class="MsoNormal"Deadshot, Silent span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"Equipment: Slug Rifles (scope + special bullets), hunting knife, hunting gear, span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p