Rude Awakening.

III.


I felt broken. My limp arms were swinging back and forth, but I could barely feel them as I sprinted past countless trees. I could barely even walk, let alone run, and yet I pushed myself to run despite the soreness. I only stopped after I put a considerable distance between myself and Marcus.

I began gasping for air, my ribs were screaming, and my lungs felt as if they had collapsed after I exhaled air; The taste of blood was constantly present and gradually became worse as I ran.

My arms and areas around my ribs were beginning to swell and slight movement of the arms or torso would make me feel an intense sharp pain where I was swelling.

I pushed through the brambles and thorns of the inside of a bush and started to make myself comfortable. If I was going to hide here till sunrise, I might as well get comfy. I had almost believed I had gotten away from Marcus for a brief moment until I heard the sound of his obnoxious whistling.

"Sippin that drank, I'm off the wock." Marcus murmured, "where is the little shit?"

I heard Marcus distantly and pondered over my current state of what I should do.

The stress of me getting caught by Marcus made me break out into a cold sweat. I went through the options of running or hiding. My mind was racing as I considered both options and I opted to hide because the forest was getting thicker and harder to run in and my adrenaline rush had long been over.

For a moment my heart stopped. I thought our eyes met; I almost broke out with a scream as I remembered all the things he had done to his son prior and yet he acts so nonchalantly. Fortunately, God was on my side or he was too fucking drunk off that drank or whatever and must've thought I was an animal of some sort.

Marcus is a literal monster in human skin what sort of man derived joy from the pain and suffering of his child? He was an animal who needed to be put down at all costs, but how?

[Quest Unlocked!: Kinslayer]

Marcus Black is a prick and deserves to die. Help the people of Remnant by getting rid of this menace once and for all!

Difficulty: Not Recommended

Success: Gain the "Kinslayer" title and +10000 EXP.

Failure: Death.

Was the system out to get me? I AM NOT FUCKING DOING THAT… As much as I wanted Marcus dead, there was absolutely no way I stood a chance against Marcus currently. I decided to ignore the quest for now, but all of a sudden my legs began to wobble, and I subsequently fell. And I didn't have the strength to get up. Shit, I'm passing out. I couldn't resist my body's forceful shutdown. Sleep came fast, but the smell of smoke was faster.


"MOM!" Mercury screamed as he rushed over to his fallen mother.

"Mercury… You've grown up so well, I'm so proud of the man you've become." Athena smiled within the absolute mess of her face, fresh blood leaking out of almost every pore, her skin swollen with bruises.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP BITCH!" Marcus roared, and with an audible crack of his fist, he struck his wife over and over again.

Blood splattered across the muddy ground as if a water balloon had been popped.

"Dad, please stop… No more I'm begging you…" Mercury begged, however, it seemed Marcus chose not to listen.

Marcus spat in his wife's face, "Mercury… She's a weakness, and you're to be bred as a living weapon, I can't have any weaknesses holding you back." And shot a bullet into her before walking off, as he didn't want the blood to stain the new clothes he was planning on wearing to meet the client.

Mercury began to bawl, as tears fell down his cheeks, splattering the dirt below.

"Mercury… Live for me." Athena rasped before she stopped breathing.


I awoke to the smell of burning. I pushed myself off the ground and I was surprised my broken arms, and ribs were fully healed. Is this supernatural healing? I couldn't ask any more questions about my unnatural recovery and sprinted from the burning forest. If I were to guess why the forest is burning it is probably because the maniac drunkard Marcus was too drunk to follow my trail and just decided to burn the forest and wait for me to run out of the forest to come to find me. He must of been too off that "drank" to realize that burning the forest is a shitty plan since the forest is, a fucking huge and is too wide for Marcus to wait in one spot to find me come out.

Just when I started to navigate through the forest as the fires were catching up to me, I heard growls coming from my left side. I spun around and faced a wolf-like creature staring me down.

It just wasn't my day, was it?

"Observe," I chanted. I looked over the stats of the wolf as I was running from the beast and the fire.

Beowolf

Gender: Male

Age: 13

Race: Grimm

The forest fire rages on and the heat begins to get closer to me despite my efforts to run. I quickened my thoughts and focused on my survival. I'll have to spend valuable time dealing with the Beowolf because navigating through a forest on fire would slow me down because the paths would be blocked by the raging fire. This would slow me down enough for the Beowolf to catch up to me. I ready my body for battle and set my focus on the leg of the Beowolf knowing running away wouldn't be an option and should be dealt with now.

The Beowolf charged at me and despite fear almost overwhelming me, I found the will to move. However, my right arm got caught in its iron jaw and began to shake as a wolf would when trying to kill its prey.

[Vitality Check Failed!]

-5 HP

[You have been afflicted with the light bleeding condition]

-1 HP

-1 HP

My mind was racing as my entire body was experiencing some G-forces from the violent shaking and in the heat of the moment, I bit it back in the leg and tried throwing awkward short ranged punches. My teeth were digging into its flesh. Eventually, my mind paid no attention to the gushing blood dripping down from my arm that is being torn apart by this abomination.

-5 HP

I gained my thoughts back after around eight seconds of being treated as a chew toy and stuck my thumb out to try to gouge out the eye of the Beowolf.

-5 HP

The Beowolf now having experienced gouging its eyes pull back. The momentum from the beowolf gave enough force for me to bite off flesh from its leg. I managed to have a piece of its eye on my thumb like it was skewered. My right arm was still not in good enough condition to use, so I had to come up with an alternative. I noticed that the Beowolf was limping from its leg, but still charged at me. I came up with a plan to take the beast down. I dashed into an ideal position for an attack; The position was on the side which the Beowolf had been blinded in from the eye gouging. The Beowolf's injured leg made it too slow to turn around fast enough to see with their other eye that I had jumped into the air to deliver an attack.

[Dexterity Check Succeeded!]

My jump had an awkward launch because I was still disorientated from the shaking the beast had done to me. However, I was still able to rise high up in the air and I delivered a high arcing kick to the side of its neck which promptly broke its neck, from said impact.

I was gassed from all the exertion it took me to finally bring down this Grimm-like creature when suddenly a prompt appeared.

[By performing a new task, you have created the Roundhouse Kick skill]

-1 HP

-1 HP

-1 HP

[Quest Completed: Run Bitch! Run!]

Reward: +500 EXP, Reputation with Marcus lowered.

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

[You have been cured of the light bleeding condition]

I guess every time I leveled up my wounds would automatically heal?

Well, I couldn't please everybody, least of all my dear old dad. It was unfortunate that it lowered my relations with Marcus, as I could only imagine the rage, he's feeling if I was lucky he'd only up the training by a bit.

However, what did catch my eye, was the number of level-ups I received. It'd take me at least a week in town to level up once from doing their stupid menial quests, but here I can just risk my life and level up to that? Sign me up.

"Observe!" I chanted, as I was giddy with excitement from all the unused attribute points I had currently.

I decided upon putting 10 points into STR, 15 points into DEX, and 5 points into LCK because God knows I'll need it for Marcus.

Mercury Black

Age: 10

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Level: 9

Title: You're a literal nobody.

HP: 160/160

STR: 22

VIT: 11

DEX: 42

CHA: 1

INT: 7

LCK: 5

I pondered over what I'd do next, I couldn't go back home because Marcus would go ballistic considering I ruined his fun having successfully hidden from him. In hindsight, I couldn't cover up any of my tracks, and probably left a huge trail, thank god he couldn't find me because he was off that "drank".

I looked back to see the traces of my escape from the forest and realized that once Marcus becomes sober he will eventually find me. I headed to town to find a place to hide from Marcus because eventually, he'll be sober enough to find me.

In my view of the town, there were a bunch of wooden houses built around each other with a large plaza in the middle that was filled with a bunch of merchant stalls. A large tower with a bell at the top stood in the middle of the town casting a looming shadow over the plaza. People were walking about, busy with their own lives while others were simply loitering around passing the time.

It honestly wasn't much different than how people usually operated in the big cities. I walked by some of the stalls and saw that they were selling all kinds of things ranging from simple food to weapons and armors. I didn't have much money, so it wasn't like I could afford to buy anything, however, if I had noticed a shopkeeper's eyes wandering off, maybe I could've stolen something, but unfortunately, such a chance never occurred, and even if it had I probably wouldn't have got away with it regardless.

I sighed, I could only wonder whether or not I could've stolen them, when a voice broke me out of my trance, "Hiya! I've never seen you before and I've seen everybody!" A squeaky voice called out to me from one of the houses near the stalls. "Did ya just move in?"

I spun around and was greeted by the sight of a toothy grin, by a girl with wavy green hair. Her eye color matched her hair, but it looked too distinct from a normal human's eyes. Were furries a part of this world as well? She looked similar to my age, but I couldn't be too sure.

"Observe," I murmured, while the girl looked at me quizzically. "Did ya say something?"

Nemo Verdant

Gender: Female

Age: 10

Race: Lizard Faunus

Level: 10

Title: The Prodigious (25% Bonus to All Experience Gained)

Damn, Nemo's stats were higher than mine? But I'm the son of an assassin! How is this even fair? And what was with that ridiculously overpowered title? I had never met a child prodigy before, but I guess that just reinforces that old saying; that not all men are created equal. I wanted that title, but how would I go about obtaining it? Maybe I could unlock it via a quest chain or something? And secondly, what even is a Faunus? I had many questions, but too few answers…

"Nah, I've always lived near here," I responded, as I walked up to Nemo. "I live kind of in the wilderness, but it's near here, it's pretty cool though."

"But how come I've never seen you or your dad before?" Nemo blabbered on, "I practically know everybody in this town!"

"Maybe you have," I replied with an offhand shrug. "His face is pretty unique, he has a face only a mother could love." I scrunched my face as I tried to mimic his perpetual scowl, I stopped as Nemo's eyes widened, Did I say something wrong? But almost instantaneously Nemo busts out laughing. "What's so funny?" I questioned, as I tried to hide the grin from my face, relief flooding my system.

[+5 Reputation with Nemo]

Nemo wasn't wrong though… That was a good question, did Mercury just never leave the house or something? I had to dig around through some more of Mercury's memories to find the answer to that question. Marcus didn't even allow his son out of the house unless it was for training, which was just downright sad. The kid sure had a screwed-up childhood.

No wonder Mercury's charisma stat was so low, Marcus never gave him the exposure to socialize with others.

The girl's eyes widened a bit and she looked around really quick before she leaned in to whisper in a hushed tone. "Did you sneak out?"

"Yeah," I whispered back. "Keep it a secret for me?"

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me! My lips are sealed. " The girl happily replied as she mimicked closing a zipper across her lips. "Oh, my name's Nemo by the way, Nemo Verdant."

"Thanks, Verdant," I began to stretch a bit as a way to show off my muscular definition, as Nemo blushed and looked away before I responded with a cocky smirk on my face. "I'm Mercury, Mercury Black."

[+5 Reputation with Nemo]

Nemo gave me a flustered grin. "Why don't I give you a little tour of the town, my treat."

I spread my arms wide and dipped my knees into a little curtsy of a bow. "Of course m'lady, please lead the way."

"Cool, just let me tell my mom real quick, I'll be right back!" Nemo said before she rushed off into the house behind her stall.

I decided to wait for her near the edge of the plaza where I could use my observation skill on people walking by without getting in their way. It didn't long before the green-haired girl started running over, all while ducking and dodging her way through a bunch of other stalls and people. If she wasn't careful, she was going to fall—

[Dexterity Check Succeeded]

As I was talking to her I realized that I had no money and a golden opportunity appeared, let's check her pockets.

As she was about to fall, I pulled her back up before she fell, I was also simultaneously pickpocketing her. An amateur to pickpocketing like me could pull this off successfully since you're already making contact with the person when saving them from falling. What I pulled out from her pockets was a red lien card… I observed other people using this red lien card as money so I'm assuming this is the currency of this world.

I probably need this more than you, Nemo.

"Are you okay?" I asked with a worried look on my face, "I just saw you fall and I didn't even think about looking after you." I stared at her as if it would give her reaffirmation that I wasn't lying.

[+5 Reputation with Nemo]

[Hidden Quest Unlocked!]

You've met the prerequisites to this hidden quest!

Nemo is a shy and lonely girl! As kind as she may be, she is certainly lacking in friends of any sort. Thus cheer her up for a special reward!

Success: +100 exp, Increased reputation with Nemo, Unknown Reward?

Failure: Decreased reputation with Nemo

Finally, a quest that wasn't asking me to risk life and limb, from fighting for my life from my abusive father or dying to Grimm. The EXP was nothing crazy, however, it was a sure-fire way for me to level up at least once.

"I'm okay, but thanks, Mercury." Nemo gave me an innocent little smile that I almost felt bad about what I was going to do next.

"Thank God you're fine," I prattled on, "I wouldn't know what to do if a pretty girl like you got hurt under my eye." I cringed subtly from this statement, but hopefully, Nemo's childlike mind would fall for it.

Nemo's face began to turn red, as she started stuttering, "u–u–um, I'm really not that pretty, but thank you!"

Quest Succeeded!

Success: +100 exp, +10 Reputation with Nemo, and Nemo's First Friend Title!

"Observe." I chanted, as it had almost become routine for me to do so. I put 5 of my points into DEX and 5 into STR.

Mercury Black

Age: 10

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Level: 9

Title: Nemo's First Friend!

HP: 160/160

STR: 27

VIT: 11

DEX: 47

CHA: 1

INT: 7

LCK: 5

Nemo's First Friend! : Whenever you're near Nemo, receive a 10% boost to DEX.

Though there isn't much time left until Marcus becomes sober enough to follow my trails. I waved goodbye to Nemo as she'll eventually realize I went into town after leaving behind a carcass of a Beowolf in the burnt-down forest. I'll have to plan my escape from town.

Gripping the plastic metallic card I pickpocketed from Nemo, I led myself to what appeared to be an inn.


Author's Note: Holy crap this honestly took me so much time to make, I underestimated how time consuming being a fanfic writer would be.

Anyway, leave me a review if you liked the chapter, or if you have any tips on how to improve the next ones!

Also, if you want a visual representation of Nemo, think of Nino from Fire Emblem with much more protruded eyes.