AN: Part 2 of this days release.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own work and a single testicle.
Disclaimer + 1: TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS STORY, I DON'T HATE AUSTRALIA. IT'S JUST FOR COMEDY PURPOSES. PLEASE KEEP YOUR CRITTERS TO YOUR CONTINENT. PARLAY! PARLAY I SAY!
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Chapter 2: Instant Dungeon Creation.
The next time Roy gained consciousness, it was fuzzy and indistinct. He felt like he was floating in a void with brief pockets of clarity.
His thoughts were stalled, unable to pierce through a thick fog in his mind, but his awareness still existed.
Like looking through a key hole without eyes, he caught glimpses of things that stuck in his mind without any conscious thought on them.
A massive lab of some kind.
A gigantic giggling mad scientist looking blonde man wearing a white and black coat.
A bunch of computer typing sounds.
The sounds of arguing.
The mutterings of the mad scientist as he looked in Roy's general direction.
And the appearance of what seemed to be large green beads all around him. No, he was also a green bead.
Things were said, spoken in a weird language that he somehow understood but couldn't process.
It was a strange experience.
But then one day the giant mad scientist lifted a glowing orb in Roy's direction with an excited expression, only for him to trip on something, curse the ground and something about a 'game' and the orb flashed a light on Roy while the man wasn't paying attention.
Roy's world spun like a kaleidoscope from whatever the glowing orb did as his foggy consciousness reeled. Something was implanted into his soul, and he was being fundamentally changed with no external appearance changes.
And yet he still couldn't form a clear conscious thought, muddled as he was.
The next time he could see clearly, he was being carried by a strange giant blond haired girl, muttering curses about the mad scientist along the way.
Things like "I'm not getting dragged into his mess again" and "Stupid blond asshole" as well as "Fuck that guy I'm getting rid of this crap."
Not much to work off of but that was the least of his nonexistent worries as the giant girl tossed himself as well as his fellow green spheres into a dark shoot leading to the unknown.
*Line Break*
Kisuke Urahara was an undoubtable genius. Anyone who knew what he was capable of could tell you that.
That didn't make him many friends however as his genius often overwhelmed him.
A mad genius was a proper term for him. One who truly never showed the depths of his depravity mirrored in his Zanpakuto who was happily open to it. In fact, his sword often never showed interest unless blood was to be spilled.
However the man had limits and morality, saving him from going off the deep end, along with the few loyal friends who had been with him long enough to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.
But often times geniuses can't help themselves.
Such as when Kisuke single handedly created an item of such power, that it would work to reshape the very future of his reality one day.
The Hogyoku was an item of incredible power with the ability to sense the hearts of those around it and materialize their deepest desire.
It was birthed in a moment of inspiration when Kisuke was tinkering with souls and the boundaries between soul species using manufactured souls, or MOD souls as they are commonly known as. Modified souls created for a variety of reasons, tweaked to optimal growth conditions beyond human levels for learning, adaptability, and combat.
Originally created to make disposable soldiers to fight hollows, and later used for recon and tactical uses while soul reapers were in the human world, often inhabiting their fake human bodies for them while indisposed.
A mod soul was the very definition of a Humonculous soul. Created by a certain genius in his own right years earlier.
Fully sentient and functional but confined to their spheres to be used as soul reapers desired. On the brighter side, the vast majority of them held no true personality, often simply doing what they are told like robots. Not knowing pain in any form.
They lived short lives as they were programed as such.
But occasionally one would appear with a personality birthed from a new soul, and the lab was quick to label them defective and terminate them.
Such was the cruel but clear reality of the Soul Society.
Roy was just one among thousands of manufactured souls, nothing standing out in his muddled state as Kisuke chose him and another handful for his latest experiment.
An experiment based off of the self-created technology of expanding and shaping space. The way he built his secret base for him and Yoruichi. It was so hidden not because of some barrier, but because he took a small crack in a cliffside and expanded the space to a massive chamber for them to practice without another soul being the wiser.
A pocket dimension of sorts.
And one day not long after the creation of his ultimate masterpiece, he decided to play around with it like a child with a new toy.
He approached a batch of MOD souls on a counter while holding the Hogyoku with the intention of imbuing the ability of space expansion into them, when he accidentally tripped on a fallen game console and stubbed his toe roughly.
As he cursed and flailed around in pain, the concepts of 'space expansion' and 'games' combined in his mind and the Hogyoku activated with Kisuke none the wiser on the group of MOD souls.
He lost track of his thoughts and left without checking on things to go grab an ice pack, and not long after, his assistant Hiyori Sarugaki walked into the lab, took one look at the counter holding a group of MOD souls right next to a clear horror movie type sign labeled "EXPERIMENT #147: BEWARE OF JIGGLING" in bright blood red letters and clicked her tongue.
"Nope. I'm not dealing with this shit today."
She had experienced enough horrors that came from the mans 'inspiration' and wanted nothing to do with the next thing that would try to eat, strangle, digest, tickle, play poker, or strategize to assassinate politicians in the human world with her at 3AM while she was trying to sleep.
It was going in the trash.
She threw the MOD souls into a box along with whatever random crap Kisuke was playing with that day, cursed his existence a dozen times, and tossed the box of random crap into the trash shoot that tossed highly hazardous materials into the Dangai, letting them be vanished into the unknown between dimensions where nothing returned.
It was a normal Tuesday for Hiyori, just with less chaos thanks to preemptive measures.
But while she went back to her schedule, the items she tossed down the shoot tumbled through the Dangai, falling into cracks between dimensions, with 90% of the items being destroyed by space fluctuations.
The few surviving objects, including a half-eaten sandwich, a whole cabbage, a highly unstable molecular blade capable of splitting atoms, a cat toy, and a single MOD soul, tumbled into tunnels of space, bringing them to various destinations decided by fate.
The sandwich to a woman stranded on an island, cursing the heavens for her fate and to give her some help, only to be smacked in the face with something she was allergic to. Karma came for her.
The cabbage fell on the head of a man lost in life, seeing a cabbage fall out of clear blue sky on his head giving him inspiration and leading him down the road as a famous cabbage cart seller. Not successful but famous nevertheless.
The blade and cat toy landed on a cliffside, only for a tiger to pass by and kick the blade down the cliff into the ocean to never be seen again while it played with the toy.
And finally, the MOD soul tumbled through space, falling into a realm, and landing directly into the gaping mouth of a dying young teen in a barren landscape by some stroke of providence!
Or a multidimensional beings interference. Same difference.
The container of the altered soul melting and dissolving never to be reformed again as the soul grew and adapted to inhabit its new physical container. More like glue rather than a true perfect fit.
The dying body was revitalized and changed as a new soul inhabited it.
It's chest began to move as breath returned to its lungs, and a moment later, eyelids fluttered open as the young teen sat up with a gasp of air.
Wide green eyes took in the new world as he gasped. "Fucking bloody ninth circle of hell I'm alive! Wait, hold that thought, I don't feel so good." A raspy voice spoke out before he turned to the side and vomited black sludge.
Roy's entrance into his new life was not a pleasant one.
"Fuck you Jake! BLUURR! Fuck you Kisuke! BLUUURR! Fuck! BLUuurrrggghhh!"
Pleasantness aside, he was alive, and his new journey was about to begin.
*Line Break*
Fifteen minutes later, Roy sat up with a groan and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "That. Was. Disgusting." He eyed the black gunk with distaste and quickly moved away from it to not breathe in the scent.
Only to almost step on a giant fucking spider. "MOTHERFUC….!" He jumped away roughly and shivered at the sight of the behemoth spider larger than his foot.
A hiss to his side made him turn his gaze and jump away a second time from moving sand where a trio of scorpions broke through.
A rattling sound had him dodging and rolling away from a resting poisonous snake.
"WHAT KIND OF HELL IS THIS!?"
Roy was having a mini panic attack as he ran and fled for his life from one horror life threatening beast after another until he stopped ten minutes later with a large rock in his hand ready to fight for his life.
"I asked for an easy start! I paid for it! What the fuck is this shit!? Who could possibly survive in this god forsaken land!?"
A new sound in the distance had him turn his head ready to run only to come upon the sight of a trio of hopping giant rabbit like creatures.
A lightbulb went off in Roy's head. "Oh, it's not hell, it's just Australia." He watched the kangaroo's pass for a moment before throwing his rock at the ground. "WHAT THE FUCKS THE DIFFERENCE!"
He panted as he finished shouting and venting before kicking a larger rock over to make sure nothing was underneath and sitting down.
"Alright, now that all that stuff is out of my system, where, who, and why the fuck am I here?"
Roy processed it all quickly, from the memories of his main self, the fragmented memories of his current body, and the fragmented memories of his MOD soul life.
"I'm Roy, the same guy from my last life, first life? The guy who's planet got blown up. Not sure on my last name or who family or friends were. I worked as a… park ranger and had few hobbies. Yeah, that's mostly it, a pretty boring life.
My current body was…hm…I have the basic knowledge. An orphan here in some random town a few miles away from the coast where Port Hedland was, the coast where most people stay to not die a horrible death from earths collection of horrors like normal human beings. His name was Roy… Jerkins… ok then. Someone was having some fun with this guy's name.
Let's keep things simple stupid here. Roy Smith. Simple and generic, I like it.
He died while getting a flat and stepping on a scorpion with fast acting poison. Sad way to go but that explains all that black sludge I vomited out.
As for the car…yeah, that was stolen. Wow, this kids life was harsh. A real street urchin type, hanging around thugs, a pickpocket, and not much going for him. The guy didn't have a single friend he could trust, rough man, rough.
And he was only fourteen when he died. Sorry man, hope you have a good life next time. I would offer to help with some or your desires but I don't know what you thought or wanted. Just the basic information.
As for the MOD soul life….fuck you Kisuke. I know Jake said things would work out in a way that makes sense but holy fuck a little warning would have been nice."
Roy huffed for a moment before letting it go.
"Whatever, I'll take what I can get here. I'm alive and I have my wish, that's all I care about. Speaking of my wish…"
Roy concentrated for a moment and felt something, like an extra limb, just waiting to be moved in his mind.
"Aschente."
The world shattered like glass, leaving a wide eyed Roy looking at exactly the same scene as before, except under a dull red sky.
"Huh, neat."
Aside from the sky, and the utter lack of noise, it all looked the same.
Roy got up and looked around in wonder for a bit before noticing a single change. A signpost was off to the side. It had a wooden post embedded in the ground and a large rectangular canvas like paper on it.
'Reminds me of those signposts outside a hiking trail or a zoo exhibit.'
The sign was quite simple. Split into three partitions.
Rules. Options. New Notes.
[Instant Dungeon Creation:
Rules:
Only the user or those deemed property or those connected through souls may enter a dungeon.
Entrance and Exit to and from a dungeon must have at least 5 seconds out of direct combat.
Re-entry to a dungeon will reset conditions at random patterns.
Death inside the dungeon is true death.
Completion of a dungeon will unlock new dungeon options.
Time moves at the same rate as the real world.
First time defeat of a dungeon boss will drop prize chests. Roll for glory.
Non-living objects may be removed from dungeons.
Movement in entrance dungeon will result in user exiting in the new location.
Anything placed within Thirty feet of this Signpost will remain when user leaves.
To enter an ID, place a finger on desired entry or call out the ID while inside the entrance space.
…
Options:
ID: Goblins
ID: Boars
New Notes:
{Welcome New User}
]
Roy finished reading it with a nod. 'It's the same as what I read earlier. Theres no rule for that clause Jake pointed out, but I guess it's too early for that to appear.
Interesting that I have two dungeon options from the start but I'm not complaining. At least it's not the cliché zombie choice.'
Looking around, Roy decided to get something out of his system.
"Aschente."
The world shattered for a moment before returning to reality with its blue sky.
Roy took a deep breath, letting the wind blow his hair dramatically before his eyes shot open.
"Aschente."
Glass shatter, red sky.
"Aschente."
Glass shatter, blue sky.
"Aschente."
Glass shatter….
"Aschente."
Glass…
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
"Aschente."
Roy laughed like a third rate insane villain for a good few minutes watching reality change back and forth until he was thoroughly satisfied.
He was a man in mind and young teen in body and had just been handed a magic spell. His actions were understandable.
Fifteen minutes later, he stepped back up to the signpost which had a new note.
{You done?}
Roy nodded happily. "Yep. Had to try that once."
Nothing responded but the note did fade. While not an AI or anything, the ID create did have a semi level of intelligence in its own way.
Roy ignored that however and sat down.
"Ok, as much fun as that was, I need a game plan here. I have the general idea of what I want to do.
Roy Jerkins hometown won't think to look for him for weeks. The orphanage he was at knew he was a thug and he had no friends that would notice. Once people do put out a search warrant, he will be declared dead soon after if nothing turns up. But that works to my benefit here. I don't need a legal identity really, not with my plan."
Roy had a great plan. A simple plan. A plan that could make life simple.
Grind in dungeons Gather resources Open online website Sell resources Instant delivery Make money Buy stuff Grind more.
A clear path to both strength and money. That's why he wished for the ability of 'Instant Delivery' (No Questions Asked). Whenever anyone purchased something he had listed for sale, the item would automatically transfer from Roy to the new owner in seconds, and no one would ever question how it worked.
"It might be simple but I'm sticking with this.
K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid.
This is my new life motto.
I'm going to tattoo that shit on my body at some point. But for now, I should probably find a place to crash. I could always head back to the orphanage for a bit, but I feel like it's better if people think my old identity is dead.
If so, how the fuck do I do things."
Roy tried to think of a way to make it all work.
Grind in dungeons Gather resources Open online website Sell resources Instant delivery Make money Buy stuff Grind more.
In order to grind the dungeons, he needed to know how to fight. Something he didn't know.
In order to sell resources, he needed a website and bank account not connected to the name Roy Jerkins.
In order to get a new ID, he needed money. Thanks to the kids time as a thug, Roy knew where to go to get a new ID, but that cost money. So he needed money first.
Roy's eyes turned to the car he knew was sitting a short distance away. A nice 2025 SUV. The old Roy hitched it from a rich tourist who was flaunting her wealth for all to see.
He knew what to do.
But first.
His eyes turned back to the signpost. "I'm not going to leave without at least trying it aren't I?" He smirked and called out to enter his first ID. "ID: Boars." Boars were easier to deal with than goblins right?
At least, those were Roy's thoughts.
*Line Break*
Things did not go according to plan.
Roy learned very quickly why humans didn't fight a large violent animal bare handed. Especially one he was pretty sure was slightly enhanced from normal since that boar broke a tree in half from its charge and walked it off.
Boars don't snap trees like that, right? Right?!
Roy hoped so, for his fragile pride at least.
A beaten and cut up but otherwise fine Roy left that clearing he was reborn in hours later, driving the SUV to the chop shop the old Roy knew of to sell off the car.
The guy in charge, an older thug named Roger, took one look at his pathetic appearance and didn't even try to rip him off. Just told him to take the money and go home.
The man probably thought Roy got beat up getting the car, but Roy didn't care. No one recognized him and no one would remember him.
He got the money, bought a motel room for the night, and crashed hard.
His plan needed adjusting.
The next morning, a very sore and bruised Roy caught a bus into the port city and made his way to a shady bar.
A quick visit with a certain man in the back had him holding a new ID and bank account number. It helped that the old Roy was barely in the government files since he avoided school to pickpocket and never got caught.
The man didn't give two shits about his age or appearance, it was just business and Roy was paying for it. Never say buying a new identity is cheap, it cost half of the money he got for the new SUV.
But he didn't care, he was a new man, or teen. Officially Roy Smith now.
He deposited the rest of his cash, both the money from selling the car, and the little he had stocked from his pickpocketing. Or not so little considering he was snatching watches and jewelry who's prices went for a pretty penny to the right buyers.
His next step was buying a phone which was slightly difficult with his rough appearance, but money speaks loudest and he got what he needed with a handful of disposable data chips.
Downloading a few apps, he got everything else he needed easily done. A miracle how easy the modern world was.
Place to stay? Renting a secluded cabin with keys in a lockbox on the front door for a month.
Website to sell shit? No point yet as he wasn't a known brand. He just downloaded a bunch of buying and selling apps to make a name first.
Painkillers? The pharmacy was open.
Survival kits, camping gear, and basic weaponry he can buy online? Ship it to the cabin.
And finally, finding out how to fight.
Well, the last one came with its own surprise. Roy didn't have a perfect idea of what world he was actually in, only that it was a modern day world matching the geography of his old world and that the year was 2025.
And then he passed by an advertisement for something that clearly defined what world he was in.
NerveGear. Specifically, VR technology.
A quick google search and he easily confirmed the names Akihiko Kayaba and Aincrad.
He was in SAO. That made life much more convenient for him.
He spent a good half of his remaining funds to purchase the newest version of VR tech and anything he would need to use it, but thankfully the tech level was a few grades higher than he was familiar with and he only needed a simple laptop to connect the device to.
In no time at all, Roy was opening boxes and getting set up in a cabin away from others. He had a new ID, a new bank account, all the starting equipment he would need, a place to stay, and a clear and straightforward way to learn how to fight.
If there was one thing the vast majority of many modern day humans knew but never took advantage of, it was the sheer freedom of information available online.
You could ask almost anything, and you would find links for it.
With VR tech being so widely available and expansive, that knowledge had much more attractive ways of learning.
It wasn't just RPG games available. There were learning games, martial arts, sports, emergency healthcare, wilderness survival, and dozens of more things.
Roy soaked it all up.
For the following 6 weeks, he did nothing but wake up, log in, train in VR, and eat and sleep with a light daily work out.
A normal human might be thrown off by such a lifestyle, but Roy had the greatest motivation available in the form of his ID create just staring at him in the face every day.
Not to mention the pure resentment he held for the boars after his first experience with an ardent desire for revenge.
And add in the fact his funds were running low and he would need to start selling things soon.
All three together were pure motivational juice for him to hustle like a man possessed.
The first week was dedicated to getting survival basics in his head.
Even with a background as a park ranger, with years of camping experience, it never hurt to brush up on things.
Next came finding how the hell he was going to fight.
Hand to Hand combat was always good, but not great when he was a base human trying to punch a boar that can split a tree.
Guns? Always a reliable method, but they will only be useful in the short term. Roy doubted they would keep being effective as he moved into higher dungeons, unless he kept increasing the firepower of course. And then it would raise questions of how the hell to get such weapons, and how to keep supplying the parts for it.
So back to K.I.S.S.
What was he good at?
He played Archery as a sport in high school and college. A decent talent with lots of hard work but nothing truly special.
But it was a start. So he began Archery lessons for hunting. Using VR tech to truly train in active combat simulations, following an AI prompt on how to move, shoot, and perform.
And then he would be graded on his performance at the end of every sequence. It was similar to dance dance revolution games in a way from back in the day.
Shoot, review, correct, repeat. Over, and over, and over again.
Then he added in some basic knife handling classes.
Just to learn his way around one for self-defense and active combat.
Then came tracking, hunting, skinning, and preparing wild animals.
Then how to move with stealth.
How to prepare a meal in the field.
How to trap wild game.
The number of classes he could take were unlimited. However he as a human was limited. Or so he thought.
While Roy momentarily forgot about it, his soul was birthed from a MOD soul, meaning the parts of him affected more by the soul, such as his mind, were enhanced to elevated levels of learning capabilities.
Furthermore, the soul enhances the body, and while the changes to his genetic makeup were minor, they still existed and were boosted by his soul.
Overall, while he possessed a mortal human body, his growth potential and mental faculties were much higher than a base human.
MOD souls were created with the intention to be able to fight Hollows after all. And as long as they could stay focused and dedicated with the right mindset, they could learn at double if not more the learning speed of a regular human.
IF they were focused and dedicated that is. MOD soul or not, most beings get bored easily.
So in just short of six weeks, Roy gained enough knowledge and confidence from VR training to make a new attempt at the boar dungeon.
He was far from a master at anything but at least he didn't feel like a level 1 noob anymore.
The goblin dungeon would wait for the moment, as although physically weaker than a dungeon boar, goblins had a decent level of intelligence and were more annoying to fight.
So on the seventh week since his rebirth, Roy stepped back into the dungeon from the living room of his cabin.
Fully dressed in cheap tactical gear, with an emergency pack for food, water, and a first aid kit, having three combat knives strapped to his body, a quiver and bow on his back, and a pack for trapping supplies.
The red sky shone from outside the windows of his cabin as he walked out the door to find the wooden post waiting for him at the edge of the porch.
He took a deep breath and called for the boar dungeon, watching as reality shattered once more before his surroundings were replaced by the wild jungle with pockets of open space he entered those few weeks ago.
Looking behind, he saw that the cabin was gone with only the wooden post remaining.
Rather than recklessly charge ahead, he quickly climbed a tree and looked around his perimeter. With all the extra gear, he couldn't waste energy carelessly.
Thankfully, it wasn't hard to spot the nearest enemy.
It was called the Boar Dungeon, and if it had anything, it was boars.
The things were larger than your average boar at around eight feet long and four feet high with large tusks and powerful muscles.
He judged the distance at around eighty yards and pulled out his recurve bow and an arrow tipped with a hunting grade penetration arrowhead and took aim.
Remembering the weeks of repetition, he breathed in, took aim with a locked arm, and in one smooth motion pulled back the string, hit the sweet spot by his chin, and released. The move was fluid as if he had been training for close to half a year rather than just six weeks, but his learning capability shined here.
The arrow flew true and straight, but he misjudged the height difference and only skimmed the beast, drawing a thin line of blood.
The boar screeched and kicked wildly thinking it was being attacked by something close by, but it was short lived as Roy had taken aim and fired once more.
A second arrow buried itself in the boards limb.
A third arrow in its back.
And a fourth in its head, piercing through the skull to silence the beast.
Roy smiled ferally at the feeling of his first kill. It wasn't a clean kill; it took four shots and he had to adjust each time as the boar moved.
But it was still his first. And a certain thrill filled him. A thirst for more. Not for taking a life, but for a challenge.
He trained nonstop, from morning to night for weeks, and now he wanted to play.
The hunt was on.
For the next few hours, Roy treaded lightly through the jungle, making the most from his stealth training to move light and low, climbing high for vantage, and raining death on his foes.
Only stopping to skin a boar if he was sure nothing else was in close vicinity.
He had no need for the meat at the moment, but when he had a chance he still put his lessons to use to skin and dress a corpse for practice.
It wasn't the cleanest or most enjoyable activity, his first skinned boar was a downright crime scene, but experience was what he was after and he pushed past the queasy feeling soon enough with repetition.
The only things he saved were the tusks of the boars, seeing them as the most valuable part.
Slowly he learned, slowly he grew, slowly he adapted.
Not every kill was clean. A few times he was spotted and his tree was broken causing him to leap to others or grab vines to break his fall and run.
Not always cleanly and with bruised or cracked bones as a result.
When he fixed the visual issue, they found him through smell.
When he fixed the smell, he discovered them traveling in groups after his tenth kill, forcing him to strategize his targets, play to the field around him, use traps where he could, and on the rare occasion to use his knives if they got to close.
It was brutal, it was wild, it was primal, and it filled him with incredible joy and purpose.
The feeling of physical, technical, and mental growth from constant exposure. The thrill of the hunt. The burning of his blood in his veins.
He loved it.
Days passed, weeks passed, two months soon passed with him moving through the boar dungeon, a jungle that seemed to expand to crazy extents. A few times he reached an edge and had to turn back and choose a different direction.
The main issue was that every time he left, the dungeon would reset. And they never had the same spawn patterns, meaning he always had to stay on the hunt.
But his kills got more efficient as he grew more comfortable and familiar.
After only two months, the majority of kills took no more than two arrows. One for the kill, and one to make sure it was down.
A little accident with a boar he thought was dead surprised him enough to deal his first major injury and break his arm.
He cursed up a storm that day but sometimes you need to take a step back to keep moving forward. His injury led to a new discovery.
He was so angry with the boar that hurt him that he dissected it and took the entire thing back to the cabin to cook and eat even with only one functioning arm.
It was two days of eating and rest later that he realized the meat from the boar was actually speeding up his recovery speed dramatically.
A wound that would take two months to heal naturally, was sped up by his biology to a minor degree, and then tripled by eating a steady supply of boar meat.
Roy was overjoyed at the knowledge that his first dungeon supplied an uncomplicated way to heal up. Even if it weren't instant it was at least something he could make use of long term.
It excited him for whatever the goblin dungeon held but he promised himself to take things one step at a time.
The steady supply of quality boar tusks were also appreciated as he was making good money off of them. The tusks were greatly desired for their uses in medicine, jewelry, letter openers, and such. His supply was almost always bought out within hours of posting on selling apps.
They would disappear from his stockpile and his bank account would go up with each one sold. No questions were ever asked. No one bothered him. No one came looking for him.
It was perfect.
He did have to swap cabins a few times to make sure no one noticed a young teen living alone, but with everything done without human contact, Roy could disappear into a cabin for a full month to six weeks without anyone noticing.
And with the ability to hop on VR for anything he didn't know and wanted to learn, he never had to go anywhere at all.
But by the fourth month of his new life, he finally reached the boss monster of the first dungeon. After killing off the hundredth boar in a single run, a loud roar shook the jungle and Roy's eyes widened in surprise from his treetop. He didn't even go down to claim the tusks and arrow he fired as he glued himself to his perch and hid in the shadow.
The ground shook and tree's swayed before a minivan sized boar came charging through the brush and knocked over tree's before it stopped near the fallen boar and snorted at it before continuing on.
'Mother of Jake from State-Farm that's a big piece of pork.'
Roy didn't even bother trying to take a shot. He knew that was the boss but without a clear shot at its eyes, he doubted he could easily penetrate into anything vital.
"I'm going to have to keep it contained and still, so traps it is."
Roy spend the rest of the day following the boss around from a distance. It left a clear trail of destruction in its wake and didn't seem bothered by obstacles, preferring to go through them. But Roy was looking for patterns and behaviors.
The good news was that he found them. The boss traveled in linear lines until it reached the edge of the jungle and changed to a new direction.
The unwelcome news was that it gathered any boar it came near into a large stampede with it. Meaning he had to finish it before it could gather allies.
"This is going to take some planning."
He left the dungeon, knowing it would reset, and got to work on a plan.
Often jumping into VR programs to fight simulated monsters and get better idea's. Such fights were always fun, but there was something distinctly missing from a VR monster to the ones he fought in his dungeons.
A realism fact that really made his blood boil was sadly missing in VR. The VR made it a gameinstead of a hunt.
Two days later, he executed his plan.
Ninety nine boars were killed before he began setting up traps.
Focused heavily on the center of the jungle, where he knew the boss would pass through on each run.
The plan was to make three layers of traps to take advantage of the boss's straight forward movements.
A layer of barbed wires and wooden spears to injure and slow the beast, a layer of dug up dirt to lower the height of the beast while the dug up dirt had water mixed in from a nearby pond to make it muddy and slippery while wooden stakes were dug in.
The final layer was quite simply, a decoy surrounded by a nice stack of homemade bombs.
You can really learn anything on the internet, and likewise in VR, like how to make a homemade bomb. It wasn't much compared to C4, but all Roy needed was the initial ignition. The decoy had eight mini propane tanks situated around it hooked up to the homemade bomb. The total explosion for the bomb plus the tanks was the ideal explosion he was looking for.
If all of that didn't stop the boss, then Roy would have to retreat and prepare further.
Unfortunately, not all plans survive first contact, and a wandering boar accidentally died to the outer layer of traps.
Roy deadpanned at the dumb fuck who ran headfirst into a wooden spike thinking it was a challenge and wondered. 'Is it sad that I got my ass kicked by one of those four months ago?'
A roar shook the jungle and Roy nodded. 'The boss agrees, it was sad.'
He sighed and focused on setting up the explosives around the decoy as the ground kept shaking.
"SCREE!" A loud high pitched yell drew his gaze for a moment but he ignored it with a calm façade to finish his work. And not a moment too soon as the beast broke the tree line and charged straight into the first line of defense, ignoring the wooden pikes and barbed wires stabbing into its skin.
It's eyes were red and steam left its nostrils as it kept charging.
From behind, a dozen regular boars charged as well but quickly got stuck or met their end on the spikes and wires.
Roy didn't wait around for the boss to get close and began shooting, aiming for its eyes. The first one was hit easily as the boss was facing him but after screaming in pain, the boss kept its head down to charge without losing its remaining eye.
He only managed the shot as the first two layers did their jobs of slowing the minivan sized boar down.
Rather than keep shooting, he crouched low and rolled into the tall grass, moving quickly in a semi-circle to the side of the beast.
In great pain, it's anger amplified, and half blind, it kept going forward without any concern for anything besides squashing the puny enemy before it, or the decoy standing clear in his way.
"SCREEE!"
With a primal roar, the boss charged clear into the third layer, feet away from the decoy, and at the final moment, time seemed to have slowed in Roy's eyes from his shooting position with an arrow knocked.
He pulled back and released in one fluid motion, the tall grass parted from the slight air pressure, the arrow flying straight and true, spinning in his eyes as momentum brought it forward.
Three seconds before the boss made contact with the decoy, the arrow landed directly through the center, triggering the bomb placed behind it at that exact spot.
There was a second of silence as Roy dove for the pre-dug cover he set up in advance.
*BOOM!*
The jungle lit up with an orange glow as a large ball of fire lit up the clearing for a moment, rising higher and higher and breaking through the canopy above, before burning out in the red sky. Leaving a pillar of smoke behind, churning and whirling like a massive angry snake.
The smell of burnt pork was heavy in the air as Roy pulled himself from the dirt and spat out a wad of mud that got in his mouth while his ears rung.
"Bleh, gross. So did that do it?"
"Screee…"
A weak call answered him and he sighed. 'Fine, I raised the flag this time.'
He got up unsteadily, ready to fight while scanning the field, but thankfully the flag was only half raised.
The massive form of the boss monster was on its side curled up with three of its legs missing and bleeding profusely from the open stumps.
It twitched and struggled even still but Roy was quick to move in and finish it. He wouldn't make the mistake of approaching a defeated but still breathing beast, but he had no intention to torture or make it suffer unnecessarily.
There was no joy in bringing pain, only in the hunt and challenge.
Despite not moving nearly as much during the final challenge as he did when hunting a hundred boars, he felt exhausted mentally and physically.
The sheer focus and adrenaline in that fight, watching a tank of a boar charge you, and the slight ringing in his ears along with taste of ash on his tongue wasn't a wonderful feeling.
He was ready to go wash off and enjoy a nice meal after completing the dungeon after four months.
An arrow went through the boss's already destroyed eye socket and imbedded itself in its brain. The great boar twitched and called one last time before going still.
And the exact moment it died, a horn blared out with a fanfare style noise, giving poor Roy a small heart attack from the surprise as an arrow was knocked and ready to be shot at a moment's notice.
It went unneeded however as confetti rained down from the sky and Roy slumped.
"Really? Someone point me to the settings so I can turn this shit off, I almost shat myself. Oi! Who the fuck put glitter in this!"
It was an eventful few minutes as Roy tiredly but determinedly dodged the glitter bomb of hell from the sky. Glitter was impossible to get out of your stuff.
A soft spotlight like light appeared near the boss and Roy carefully moved over without disrupting the glitter on the floor to see a typical treasure chest appear on the ground.
Hovering over it was a twenty sided die, waiting for Roy to use it. The chest wouldn't open before the die was rolled.
Roy sighed at the sight. "This is the annoying part but I had no choice."
When he added in the wish for boss monsters to drop loot chests, it was with the intention of getting good stuff, but Jake quickly poured a bucket of ice water on that when he mentioned the rule accompanied with the minor wish.
You had to roll for glory.
Like a D&D style die, which didn't mean much to him since he never played D&D, it had twenty sides and the higher the number, the better the loot.
The way it was explained to him, every four numbers marked a new 'grade.' With 1 – 4 being the lowest and 17 – 20 being the highest.
Except for the top section of 17 – 20, what he could get would always be completely random and also varied depending on the dungeon he was in. For example, you were more likely to get a fire sword from a heat based dungeon.
The top numbers were supposedly more helpful to his needs.
Roy sighed and picked up the cool die. "I never had any luck for these games."
He rolled it off his hand and watched it bounce but never touch the ground, seemingly hovering over it to roll on a flat surface, and eventually stop on #8.
The die vanished and the chest opened with a soft golden light, accompanied by another fanfare sound before the glow faded, leaving a small satchel floating in the air.
Roy rose a brow and grabbed it. Looking inside he found a dozen vials of green liquid and a piece of parchment.
He deadpanned at what was written on it.
{Sleep is for the weak! Take a drink and feel your mind and body refresh with energy.
One dozen vials of stamina potions.
Warning: May result in temporary Hallucinations.}
'…..'
He crumbled the note and threw it away.
"That is both incredibly useful and annoying."
He sighed and put the satchel down as he took out his skinning knife to work on the boss.
The tusks were massive and while the bottom half of the boar was charred, the top part that held the Loin parts of meat were still fresh. He wasn't going away without his hard earned meal.
Later that night, a happy Roy hung around the Dungeon Entrance area, a space he was beginning to refer to as 'The Lobby.'
The Lobby was basically a copy of reality, with all the infrastructure of the real world without any of the people.
Furthermore, he realized with some testing that he could enter the dungeon in one place, walk around in The Lobby, and exit somewhere else.
Time moved at normal rates in both dimensions, but nothing he did in The Lobby effected the real world.
The signpost however would always appear where he enters. But quickly leaving and re-entering fixes that problem.
One thing he was thankful for was how he couldn't directly enter a specific dungeon. For example, he couldn't just enter ID: Boars from the real world. He had to enter and exit to The Lobby to go anywhere, and it was convenient in a way since it gave him a safe space to prepare or unwind away from any eyes.
His new satchel of potions was resting against the signpost where it would stay for the moment while he worked. The storage aspect of the signpost and its surrounding thirty feet was convenient at the moment but he knew he would have to get a real storage unit at some point.
The signpost also changed slightly. Under options, ID: Boars turned a soft gold color and a new ID appeared next to it.
ID: Boars ID: Wolves
ID: Goblins
He figured completing the goblin dungeon would open more options as well.
'I guess it's split between humanoid types and beast types? Or something like that.'
He didn't really care; goblins were next on his list.
But for now, he was happy to relax and recover, making a large bonfire in The Lobby to roast the pork from the boss and kick back with a deck chair and music on his phone which surprisingly still had a signal in The Lobby.
It was a good life.
*Line Break*
Time continued to fly by for Roy as he continued his routine, slowly but surely improving in all areas.
VR technology was the greatest tool for learning skills. It's hand on methodology created by experts in their fields with correction software to make the most of a lesson, combined with Roy's learning speed helped him fly through anything he needed in weeks.
Not that it was used that much, as no matter how fast his learning speed, there was only so much Roy could retain interest in.
K.I.S.S. was his motto and code to life.
Rather than learn dozens of skills at random, he was more focused on working with what he had and just adding things later if he ran into a wall. Such as identifying forest mushrooms which is a whole study of its own.
Just winging it doesn't work in many cases, and explosive diarrhea is a minor punishment for being foolish.
Compared to the four months it took to finish the Boar dungeon, he finished the Goblin dungeon in six.
The little buggers were smarter than wild animals but had a low degree of intelligence. They used stone weapons and covered them in shit for maximum damage.
Emotional and health damage as nothing really angers and depresses someone more than being hit with shit.
Roy could practically hear the Asian guy from the meme screaming 'EMOTIONAL DAMAGE' every time he got hit.
To make matters worse, the dungeon was inside a cave system, meaning Roy was forced to fight in the dark, in uneven and cramped places where his archery was hindered greatly.
By this point, he was aware that his senses were above a normal human level from his modified soul, but even then his vision was limited unlike the goblins who were blind to the light but saw clear in the dark.
The reason the dungeon took so long was mainly due to his need to adjust to fighting while relying on other senses.
It truly expanded on ways he never thought to see the world as his other senses developed. To know what direction a sound is coming from, how many steps, the pace, the weight, the speed of translating sound to thought. It was mind boggling, but low and behold there were VR classes for it.
He relied much more on his knife fighting skills and traps in the caves and only used his bow when he had a clear line of sight in the narrow corridors.
Often closing off one side and making noise to attract goblins and shooting them in the narrow passage before fleeing when they tried to overwhelm him with numbers.
He was scratched, clawed multiple times, and had to flee the dungeon to treat the wound in fear of an infection from the feces.
Many feverish nights were spent getting through the worst of things but his enhanced body held out, and the boar meat helped speed up his bodies recovery.
There was nothing more frightening then facing a horde of tiny goblins in a pitch black cave, holding shit covered stone weapons.
Shouts of pain and phrases like "BACK YOU VILE FIENDS!" "GODDAMN IT I JUST WASHED THESE PANTS!" and "TASTE YOUR OWN SHIT YOU FUCKERS!" were common occurrences in the dungeon caves.
It took a similar hundred kills before the boss appeared. A taller goblin with a large gut holding a crude stone spear as it chased him through the caves.
Not so much a hobgoblin but close. Not that he knew what a hobgoblin was like but it didn't seem that impressive.
It took a bit of cat and mouse as the boss chased him through the cave system but using a dead goblin corpse as a decoy and a flash of light to stun it, he was able to distract the boss long enough to land an arrow through a calf, crippling it's movement before filling it with holes.
The boss went down gurgling in anger before it slumped dead.
It was also the boss that finally revealed to him what the value of the dungeon was.
Unlike the boar dungeon, he was unwilling to evaluate the quality of eating goblin meat, and he hadn't seen anything special or valuable in the cave system till that point.
But the boss's stone spear was wrapped in a layer of metal. A more detailed search of the dungeon without the swarms of goblins bogging him down revealed a cavern full of rich Tin ore veins much to his joy.
As nice as selling boar tusks were, they were not that valuable. Tin can be sold in high quantities so he was happy to have it.
At least he was until he realized the dilemma of mining it. Thankfully, civilians can buy a jackhammer without any issue.
Say what you want, Roy had no shame in the loud evil villain type laugh that resounded in the caves while he went at the wall of tin with a jackhammer.
The goblins learned to fear the mighty bad man with the loud stick that shattered stone.
The tin was a godsend for his funds and revitalized his bank account. At a rate of 31 USD per Kilogram on the global market, a ton of raw ore sold for 32K.
Roy spent weeks spending half a day inside the goblin dungeon, the random goblins unable to get near him without dying, and mining ore with a single minded mentality.
He did have to defeat a hundred goblins and the boss each time to make them not bother him while he worked but it was easier each time.
The work did wonders for his body, and the constant exposure to a violent environment toned his mind and senses to the threat to his life and sharpened his intuition.
He understood the goblins, recognized their behavior, their habits, their traits, and could kill them blindfolded.
Furthermore, thanks to the prize from the goblin boss, he had little to worry about for their shit covered weapons.
{Minor Disease Resistance (30%) – Permanent effect}
Roy rolled a #9 on the die, the third grade of rewards, and got an orb that when crushed fused into him, granting him an overall percentage boost resistance to any disease.
With the orb fusing into him came the knowledge of its benefits. The boost would always base itself off his base self, so the stronger his base, the better the boost.
Although in a basic world like SAO, the minor boost already put him at the height of human protection from disease.
It was highly appreciated.
The money gained through mining tin for over a month was immediately put to use as Roy purchased a self-sufficient bunker in the Australian outback.
It was a small bunker fit for no more than two people, but most people only own them for emergencies rather than to live inside them.
In the current year, there were plenty of companies who created such bunkers for a price, and the one he was buying was a newer model.
The location and the lack of any building overhead helped lower the price.
After making hundreds of thousands of dollars through mining, it was all spent in the blink of an eye buying the bunker, getting the Wi-Fi signal enhanced to the highest possible level, and stocking up on MRE's to last a decade.
The bunker had a water collection system for rain and purified it for drinking as well as a sewage and drainage system that needed no servicing. Not to mention solar panels and batteries for energy.
Roy was fully disconnected from the physical world at that point, and not a moment too soon as one of the owners of a cabin he was renting had stopped by and began asking annoying questions.
Roy was gone before the owner came back a second time.
Without any more distractions, he threw himself into what mattered to him. Hunting, mining, learning, growing.
Growing without end.
After the Boar dungeon came the Wolf dungeon.
They were more vicious, more agile, more cunning, but not as powerful and easily gave into their feral instincts.
Their fur was harder to penetrate then a normal animal and required him to start using heavier bows and more varied arrow tips.
The biggest challenge was that they often traveled in packs, and the only times you found a sole straggler was in fact more dangerous than the packs since the solo wolves were the older and wiser ones who left the packs at their older ages.
If he played things smart, the first two dungeons were not much of a risk to his health, but the wolves didn't play around.
They would claw and climb the trees, surround him once he was discovered, and actively hunt him if he retreated.
They were vicious ghosts of the forest, and Roy never felt more alive fighting for his life.
A game of Hunter and Prey was played between a sole human and dozens of wolves, over and over again for weeks.
Claw and bite wounds accumulated on Roy's frame, only for him to devour the pork from the boars and watch said wounds close in days' time depending on the severity.
Even the scars left behind were faint unless the wound was a particularly deep one. He came to realize the scars were more commonly seen the longer he waited to consume the meat after being injured, but none of that mattered.
He was becoming attuned to the wolves.
His instincts, senses, steps, movements. He grew and learned, mimicked and studied, and spent hours in VR settings with anything he couldn't understand instinctively.
It was painful, it was bloody, it was grueling, and he loved it.
His archery was sharpened, his eyes tracking moving targets like a laser as his arrows moved to hit locations seconds before the target even appeared.
His stealth was honed thanks to the training in the caves with the goblins and being put up against the enhanced sense of smell and sound the wolves possessed.
He moved like a specter in the dark forest setting under a moonlit red sky, reaping the lives of wolves, leaving false trails, setting traps, and vanishing into the tree tops.
And with every day that passed, his physique continued to advance.
At physically sixteen years of age, two years after his initial entry into SAO, he had an Olympic conditioned body suited to a hunter rather than an athlete.
Dirty blond hair fell down his neck from the top of his head in a Viking braid with the sides shaved. Shamrock eerie green eyes standing out on his face that was slowly maturing beyond the initial appearance of a youthful look.
Beneath his neck, across his chest in an upwards curved line in cursive script was the four letters for K.I.S.S. tattooed. Knowing who to talk to for an illegal tat was easy with Roy's old connections.
By the time he showed up for a tat, he was already so far apart from the old Ray that no one would ever recognize him. Bigger, wilder, scarred, and not having a single soul wanting to ask him personal questions.
Roy stalked through the dark forest, silent, determined, focused. He was hunting the final boss of the wolf dungeon and he knew this time would be its end.
The beast wasn't strong and indominable like the Boar boss, it wasn't skilled with a weapon like the Goblin boss, and it wasn't as unpredictable as the Kobold boss he defeated not long before when he grew frustrated with finding the wolf boss.
The wolf dungeon was his longest to date, mainly due to how he was learning from the wolves, sharpening himself against them and squeezing everything he could from it.
But the other reason was the boss. It's main attribute was 'stealth.' It would hide, stalk, and wait for the perfect moment to strike when he was exhausted or caught off guard.
Already the beast had left two marks on his body that were deep enough to remain behind even after healing up. The two marks crossing over his hip like a long X mark.
Only his instincts and luck had saved him both times, but the boss would retreat rather than pursue, meaning he couldn't even draw it out to fight. Roy had to train his stealth skills for months to be sneaky enough to catch it's trail.
The two knew they were hunting each other, trailing each other while remaining in stealth from the other.
A game of hunter and prey, with the forest as the battle ground. Each step focused, each breath controlled, and each movement without disturbing the surroundings.
Unless a false track was left by either one, trying to outplay the other. Both knowing the other was out there. A true mental struggle.
Thankfully, the number of monsters per dungeon run were limited so far, so wolves would not keep respawning until he left and re-entered.
The hunt was long and patience was tested as two days passed in the dungeon. Both man and beast at their limits as their minds were strained from the pure focus required to remain the hunter.
Cold shamrock green eyes finally meeting wild blue ones.
Their positions moving closer and closer, until a final snap of a twig seemingly set both of them off.
Two roars of predators rang out as the two dove at each other.
Claw met flesh and blade pierced fur.
A bloody and panting Roy leaned back with a groan against the cooling form of the wolf boss. "Looks like it's my win this time."
A low whimper was his answer before it faded.
He enjoyed the silence for a moment, in appreciation for the foe he struggled against for so long, before chuckling softly and looking up past the treetops to see the bright full moon glowing in the reddish night sky.
During the day it was a clear red but in the twilight setting of the wolf dungeon, the moon and occasional stars were prominent.
A distant wolf howl rang out along with the fanfare of a boss completion but Roy ignored it for the moment to bask in his silent glory.
The glory of a long term hunt against an equal foe.
A soft smile graced his features as he let himself rest against his prey.
Chapter end.