A MIDDLE-AGED MAN IS CHOSEN BY THE CELESTIAL FORGE AND FOUND HIMSELF ON RIFTS EARTH
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story.
Warning!
Violence, War, Magic & the Supernatural
The fictional worlds of Riftsare violent, deadly, and filled with aliens, war, and supernatural monsters.
Other-dimensional beings often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk, and prey on humans. Alien life, monsters, vampires, ghosts, ancient gods and demigods, as well as magic, insanity, psychic powers, and combat are all elements of the setting. All of it is fiction.
Please note that I do not condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence.
Chapter 1: I'm dead meat…
I was whistling as I watched the stone stove (a simple flat stone on other smaller stones) and the meat and wild vegetables cooking on it. The scent was simply alluring. I have made great progress since my arrival three weeks ago.
Oh, it hadn't been an easy task, what, with all the insects, animals, and whatnot. I was grateful for my Cheat skills, especially the anti-mosquito cream that I managed to brew from various plants.
I shook my head and smirked at my new attire made of deer hide. I looked like the archetype Native American with a breech-cloth, claws necklace, roach (headdress made of tail hair), and moccasins. No shirt as the climate was hotter and wetter than in a temperate zone. I wasn't sure about the season so I could be either be in a tropical or sub-tropical location.
And I also gained a tan and lost most of my belly due to physical activity. Hunting, foraging, and upgrading my cavern took some effort. Associated with balanced good food, exposition to the sun, and crafting tools and I felt I regained my body type from my years in the French Army.
I could have used the hemp to make a tunic with my wooden loom, but I preferred my current clothes and made ropes, blankets, and canvas sacs instead.
The animals, however, were my first clue about my location thanks to my Cheat skills: monkeys, giant rodents, feline predators, and especially white-tailed deer.
Yep, no doubt about it, I was somewhere in South America.
I sighed. At least I was properly equipped… from a Stone Age point of view: Spear, hunting bow, knife, and hatchet. All made of knapped flint-stone, obsidian, and wood of course. The act of hunting had also rapidly made my weapon skills grew in leaps and bounds. If you want to eat, don't miss your prey… Granted I cheated by making traps lately.
And there was the elephant in the room… WHY WAS I HERE!?
I tried multiple times to see if simply NEEDING to go home could grant me the power, any powers, to do it… In vain.
Whoever or whatever was responsible for my Stone Age crafting skills wasn't disposed to let go of his entertainment that easily.
I frowned. All wasn't good on that front: I missed some crucial skills in this environment. I didn't have any skills in pottery except what I saw on TV or the Internet.
To have water at hand required a trip to the river and the use of a large hide-made water vessel. I also used the tricks of fire-heated stones and suspending a hide-made vessel above a fire to make hot water. A handcrafted leather gourd at my hip using deer hide, hemp thread, and resin-based glue and various wooden-sculpted recipients rounded my water-based resources.
I shook my head. Oh, I could probably make early-era pottery by making clay vessels and using a fire to bake them but… To have adequate pottery, you need a specialized oven-like structure to reach higher temperatures and glaze properly the clay.
My skills were in the Paleolithic Age range and I needed to reach for those more contemporary of the Neolithic… Although perhaps not agriculture-based skills as I was alone. Agriculture requires manpower and so, Hunting/Foraging was more appropriate for me right now.
I took a deep breath and centered myself. Perhaps it should work now..? I snorted. "Do or not do. There is no try."
I focused my thoughts on nothing but what I required. 'I need a skill to work clay.'
Granted.
YES..! And… Nothing.
I think I stayed perhaps a minute or two unmoving as my lunch began to burn since I was too flabbergasted that… despite hearing again the Voice, I didn't receive anything.
Swearing like a sailor, I saved the food and angrily ate it. What was going on?! Last time I suddenly knew how to do all sorts of things and now? Nothing… Nothing but this little vibe at the back of my mind… Huh..?
I stopped masticating, blinked then smiled, and focused on this small sensation. I clamped on it almost immediately as I suddenly felt as if my mind was stretched thin like butter on a too-large piece of bread. Don't be too hasty, Baran. Do not be hasty, period.
Okay… Strange. I had the impression of something extremely vast and… solid? Utterly solid and weighty. And yet, there was… some sort of fluidity… and heat..? Perhaps trying to sense something more simple and nearby?
My eyes immediately focused on a flint-stone pebble that I had reserved for this afternoon tool-making session (Stone Age tools didn't last very long when they are used daily). I grasped it and was immediately aware of… Well, everything about it. The grain, the crystalline structure, the impurities, the way I needed to strike the stone to sculpt it as I wanted and… It felt softer than it should in my hand.
I pressed my fingers and the stone warped under them as if it was fresh wet clay. I laughed incredulously and began to experiment with the pebble.
A few hours later, I was still laughing as I worked with my newfound power. Yes, not a skill but a power. Most probably an elemental earth-based shaping and/or manipulating power. For a few moments, I thought I gained Earth-Bending powers but it seemed to draw external energy from the very Earth itself… Or rather some nodes or nexus within the earth and not from any internal energy pool.
There was also the fact that I could manipulate plant matter with that power. I shook my head as I contemplated the carved wooden knife at my hip which was acting more like edged steel than wood. I made it by having a seed growing insanely rapidly into a small tree before molding a branch of it. And all my stone tools were also upgraded to polished stone and molded wood.
Well… I still couldn't make traditional pottery… Although I could imitate it and produce pottery-like items as clay glazed properly under my mental commands. Yeah, better not think about it too much.
Last but not least, I had a properly fixed cavern at my disposal… It was more now a combination of house and fortification sculpted inside the flank of the volcano (which, according to my newfound earth sense was non-active) than a Stone Age cavern.
The range of manipulation was still immediate, perhaps a few dozen feet radius but, I could influence enough of the earth-based materials around to detour a natural underground water path and made a hot spring open-air bath in an adjacent cavern. Yep, I had free at-will hot water at my disposal.
I snorted and sighed. Granite, sand, stone, plants, obsidian, basalt, and any Earth-based or borne materials were like play-dough in my hands. But there were implications.
I was in a magical world that implied… too many things… Like the need for such a powerful ability...
I took a martial stance, imitating badly Toph Beifong from Avatar, and swept my arms around while stomping on the ground. The immediate soil around me reacted as if it was alive and obeying my orders. Walls were formed to intercept imaginary attacks. Stones and pebbles rose from the ground and launched themselves at gun velocity towards imaginary enemies (the only long-range ability I had). The ground opened to swallow up targets or become like wet cement to trap. A platform formed under me and I fell immediately on my butt when I attempted to move with it…
"Ouch… Okay, maybe needing a little more training before attempting that again."
Still, there was something when… I grabbed a small granite stone and clenched my fist around it, willing myself to be hard as this stone. My skin went stone-gray and hard from my hand and flashing across my whole body. I blinked and tried to lift a little boulder of only a few hundred pounds. I put it above my head with one hand as easily as a pebble.
"Holy shit… I'm my own golem…"
I laughed and laughed. It's been too long since I felt this happy after being "R.O. " and dumped into this world. One week later, I didn't stumble upon civilization, civilization stumbled upon me.
The problem with using wood to fuel fire is… the smoke. You had to have a chimney-like structure or your living place will be smoked out. This means that I could be detected by anybody from very far away each time I lighted my stove. And, nope, I didn't think about it before it was too late.
I heard it before I saw it: It was a big vehicle, truck-like, internal combustion, all-terrain with 4 enormous wheels. There was a turret on the roof with some sort of machine gun. No distinctive signs except a rocky-landscape camouflage pattern.
I didn't move. It was too late when I heard the motor and besides I was more curious than worried about whoever it was.
The door opened and three beings extracted themselves from the vehicle. Male, all taller than me but armored and armed. A type of armor that made me blink in sudden deja-vu. 'I know those armors…'
"Hey, pal. Can you spare some grub for me and my friends?"
The gruff voice, American-English tone, belong to someone clad in a… Gladiator Environmental Battle Armor (identified by its spiked chain-mail and plates design, dark gray color) and armed with… the easily recognizable sleek black plastic and ceramic silhouette of a Wilk's 447 Laser Rifle. I felt myself becoming white under my tan and my back was suddenly drenched in sweat.
An armor and a weapon that came directly from an RPG setting I was very well aware of… I finally and unfortunately knew where I was: RIFTS Earth.
I don't know how I managed to not show my shock and dread. "Certainly. Be welcome to my fire, guys."
They seemed to relax when I greeted them back in American. The man in front of me seemed to be the leader and presented himself as Malcolm Guerrero as he eyed my glasses and my clothes, especially the knife. One of the other men, clad in a Bushman EBA armor (a Kevlar and composite plates in gray camouflage) and armed with an L-20 Pulse laser Rifle, returned to the vehicle that I could now identify as a Mountaineer ATV and checked on something in the cargo bay. The last one was wearing an Urban Warrior EBA armor (light gray, padding, and strategic metal plates) and another Wilk's 447 watched around and stood guard.
Curiously, Malcolm didn't present his comrades or subordinates. No, he was more interested with how many others there were around and what I was doing here… while still toting his rifle as I went back from my food reserve and began to prepare something to eat.
My guts churned as a sudden familiar intuition erupted from my unconscious. If this wasn't going to go pear shape soon… I made sure that my food came as delicious as possible in aspect and smell. I also asked where we were as I explained that I wasn't here under my own will and until now had no idea about the precise location: Hundred of miles east of the Arkhon Freehold and the Empire of the Sun and dozen of miles north of the Silver River Republic of Santiago.
Malcolm smirked a little before hiding it under a smile and invited his men to eat before they continued their business. You can't eat with a helmet on.
I observed him as he looked around, eyeing the Bushman near the Mountaineer and the Urban Warrior behind me, and nodded at him. See, their secondary weapons were all non-lethal: a knockoff Coalition States neural mace, a dart gun, and a stun gun.
I was perfectly aware of each men position around me. While my Earth Sense wasn't like an Earth-Bender's, I could still feel the vibrations from their movements. I thumped the soil with my right palm as I stood up.
The earth opened under the feet of the Urban warrior and his scream halted abruptly when I close the crevice with all my strength mentally. My left hand rose and I launched a full-powered burst of stones at the Bushman who went down with a pebble through his head, the food still in his hand.
"YOU SONA'..!" Malcolm was raising from his sitting position and going for his rifle instead of his neural mace. My skin went stone-gray as my right fist rushed to his exposed face.
His head exploded like a ripe melon. My eyes went wide as I suddenly understood too late that my strength was boosted to Supernatural level in my golem shape and I stayed immobile for an instant before vomiting my lunch and rushing to the river to frenetically wash the blood and gore. 'Oh, God… What did I do..? I didn't want to kill them all…' I could have easily trapped them into stone. Why didn't I do that?
Mega-Damage Capacity. That was the problem. Squishy beings like normal humans without appropriate armor were like eggs against hammers and anvils.
I knew that they were, at least bandits if not slavers. My intuition was rarely completely wrong. And I didn't doubt that they would have killed me without hesitation if the roles were reversed… I also knew that Rifts Earth was a Death World but… Only 4 weeks since my arrival and I was already a murderer… a killer… How many more were going to die by my hand until… What? That I went home or that I died?
I didn't know how I managed to regain a semblance of control. I shivered because I wasn't finished with my gruesome task. Now, I needed to loot the corpses before offering them a proper burial and a prayer… if just to avoid predators sniffing around and limiting my future nightmares while sleeping.
I couldn't push myself to extract the bodies from their armor yet as I looked at the three silhouettes under a canvas sheet. I shook my head as their weapons were also dangerous to me as I didn't know anything of them except their lethality. I was experienced with conventional Automatic Pistols and Assault Rifles from my military days, not energy weapons.
I snorted at the keys with an integrated car-opener in my hand. Probably one of the few things I understood. I pointed it and opened the Mountaineer.
I sighed at the various items inside. Days of study before I truly understood what they were unless I received another gift to understand and especially use all of that. The cargo bay however held a nasty surprise.
I gasped at her sight. She was unconscious, most probably drugged, hands and feet manacled, blindfolded, and gagged inside a cage. She was a young woman, no more than eighteen or twenty, with brown skin, long dark hair. She wore a gold headpiece, gold medallion, gold wrist cuffs, an orange dress, and brown sandals.
I also recognized her instantly despite being older since she was one of my favorite characters from the Mysterious Cities of Gold cartoon.
"Zia..!?"
Notes: Well, I did say it would be a Harem Protagonist story.
I hope I managed to reach the balance between exposition, character progression, action, and the Celestial Forge.
Perks gained from Age of Wonders II.
Remember: Post if you have any questions, ideas, solutions, or suggestions for this story.
