Waking up inside a forest wasn't the best way to start the day off. Yet, he supposed it could have been worse.
Carrow dully stretched his back as he stood up and looked dully at the surrounding forest. Large tall trees, bushes blocking him into a clearing filled with foliage, grass, and fallen branches. East of him was a slope leading into a rather daunting hike, and West being a slow decline.
He was at the base of a forested hill, his mind helpfully provided.
Normally he'd be panicking and awash in an ocean of anxiety. Carrow hadn't a clue how to survive for long periods of time without catching dysentery. Hell he'd struggle camping alone with a camper van.
While not exactly 'fat', Carrow belonged to the body shape medium of 'Skinny Fat', as in non-athletic young men who still had a metabolism to keep them in 'shape'.
His skin was pale, his face used to have large pores and a few dotted pimples and blemishes, while his back was also a mess of growing stretch marks. He was 6' 4'', and height didn't come without its drawbacks.
An average nineteen year-old he was no longer.
Now his skin was baby smooth, his fat had gone away leaving him a smooth and thin washboard stomach, hell, even his teeth had fixed themselves; he no longer had a cross bite.
Still nonathletic, unskilled, and generally not prepared to be in any form of a survival situation in nothing but a pair of black shorts, having gone to bed commando and he didn't sleep in socks like a psycho.
Yet, Carrow was calm and tranquil like a lake.
Why?
Well, he was a gamer. Yes, yes, That Gamer. Well, not exactly, but the point has been made and hopefully gotten across.
Waking up in this clearing a new version of himself, Carrow was given a prompt that followed him into what to him felt like a survey.
What is your name? Carrow Forwitch.
What kind of Class do you want? A good one.
Want to gamble for traits? No.
What profession do you enjoy? I dunno.
Yes, Carrow was indeed a rather calm individual due to the skills of Gamer Mind and Gamers Body affecting him.
Thus, we are taken to the 'Where am I', and 'What do I do next?'
The answer?
Doesn't Matter, and Grind.
Carrow let out a breath as he finished scanning the clearing he'd found himself in and pulled up his status, giving it a once over.
Name: Carrow
Class: N/A
LVL: 1
Profession: N/A
BODY: RANK 1, Peak Human
Body Skills:
- CORE SKILL - Gamer's Body, LVL MAX, You alone function as a gamer character. HP, MP, LVL, SKILLS; They are yours to claim and use. Sleep, food, and water is no longer required for survival. Status effects may occur when starving, dehydrated, or sleep deprived.
- CORE SKILL - Athletic Conditioning, LVL 1; Strength, Endurance, Durability.
- CORE SKILL - Celerity, LVL 1: Swiftness of Movement, Agility, Dexterity, Balance, Coordination.
MIND: RANK 1, Gifted
Mind Skills:
- CORE SKILL - Gamer's Mind: Your mind is that of a gamer and is thus inter-dimensionally disposed of your body. Clear thoughts and emotional suppression are granted to you. Your mind shall suffer no outside interference as their is no mind to be interfered with.
- CORE SKILL - Wisdom, LVL 1: Experience in the way of the world, Social Interactions, Observation of Situations, Perception, Understanding, and Comprehension.
- CORE SKILL - Intellect, LVL 1: Higher IQ, Greater Memory Retention and Pattern Recognition.
- CORE SKILL - Will Power, LVL 1: Grit, Hardship, Determination, Pain Tolerance.
SPIRIT: RANK 1, Mortal, Non-Alligned
Spirit Skills:
- CORE SKILL - Gamer's Soul: You are a character and player, and thus have a false soul that merely puppets and powers this body. No repercussions other than reductions to and status effects toward SPIRIT based skills will occur when soul is damaged, harmed, or stolen.
- CORE SKILL - Faith, LVL 0: Faith, Piety, Hope. -LOCKED DUE TO ATHEISM-
- CORE SKILL - Self, LVL 0: Personal Enlightenment. -REQUIRED RANK 2 SPIRIT, ASCENDANT-
- CORE SKILL - World, LVL 0: Draw Power from the WORLD. -REQUIRES NATURAL ENERGY, MANA, PRIMORDIAL ENERGY, QI, KI, CHI, MAGICKA, AURA, REITSU, MAGIC, DEMONIC ENERGY... EXPAND?-
- CORE SKILL - Dungeon Portal, LVL 1: Transportation to preselected worlds and locations to cultivate growth. Empty, Goblin Forest, Zombie Apocalypse, Bandit Hideout, -Orc Army Camp-, -Wyvern Mountain-... Expand.
From the help and tutorial menus, Carrow gather the following: Ranks would increase at certain LVL and Core Skill milestones. These ranks were massive jumps to his overall power, turning a Rank 1, Level 85 Celerity, to a Rank 2, Level 85 Celerity was a massive difference in power.
An example was going from Batman level agility, to a Batman with mild superpowers enhancing his body agility.
Ranks were the BIG boys; the Stat Multipliers.
Core Skills meanwhile were the 'stats' or 'attributes' of Carrow's system and functioned as 'skills' that he learned and increased through practice. Level Ups to his main level would raise his roof of power while also granting XP boosts toward all Skills.
This gave Carrow insensitive to raise his level through combat, stopping him from just sitting in a room and doing crunches and pushups for a year and coming out able to one shot everything around his level with Celerity 999 and Conditioning 999. This was only further exasperated by the need for BOTH Main Levels and Core Skills to RANK UP.
Say he leveled up from 1 - 10 by killing some strong enemy somehow. He'd also gain a rather large XP boost to all his skills to 'level' him up to a LVL ten skill wise and thus power as well. No sudden power jumps by adding stat points, just expanding on his potential by stealing others through the right of conquest.
The real power jump ups were going to come from RANKS, and his Core Skills were just there to get boosted and as a 'Baseline ability count'.
* SELECT CLASS?*
Carrow Hummed as he read through the last of the tutorials and help sections, before finally answering the games prompt.
"Sure." The most passive aggressive answer in the world.
* CHOOSE ARCHETYPE: WARRIOR, MAGE, ROUGE
-ROUGE SELECTED- COMPILING LIST... Thief, Sneak, Pirate, Ranger, Rouge, Bard, Swashbuckler, Gunslinger, Assassin... EXPAND?*
Carrow moved down the list until he found a class he thought would serve as the best for his current situation.
Classes leveled as well, gaining 25% of all EXP gained toward your main level. In exchange, they also granted class based skills. Useful for beginners, limiting for late game players.
* Survivor Class Selected? - Proceed?*
* -HELP-
-HELP: Survivor Class?-
Survivor: A class dedicated toward survival, lacking in offensive and support based abilities, Survivor instead offers resistances, utility, and general skills perfect for a beginner in a hostile environment.
Examples Include: Heat/Cold Resistance, Poison Resistance, Radiation Resistance, Bleed Resistance, Iron Gut, Healing Factor.
Basic Class Skill: Adaption and Resistance, Adapts to certain incoming damage and generates a resistance skill toward damage.
Ultimate Skill Unlocked at Level 30: Genetic Anomaly, upgrades Strength Rank and Mind Rank by 1; limited to Rank 0, 1 and 2. 50% boosted EXP toward Celerity and Conditioning.
Maxed Skill unlocked at Level 100: Immune, Grants one random immunity taken from your resistances unlocked.
Survivor Selected.
Basic Class Skill: Adaption and Resistance. Added to BODY.
Random Class Skill Generating: IRON GUT
Class Skill: Iron Gut, LVL 1, Your stomach can handle minor poisons, indigestible, and food poisoning with ease.
Class added, do you wish to receive randomized Traits?*
Carrow selected NO.
* -Quest Issued-
RANK 1 Quest*
*Where am I?*
"You have just been Shanghai'd, Isekai'd, Transmigrated, and portaled to another reality. Interogate THE GAME on where you've been transported to."
Reward: INFORMATION
FAILURE: IGNORANCE
"Uh, hey game."
-GREETINGS USER-
"Where am I?"
-WORLD NUMBER 9924552, REALITY CLUSTER 9924, MULTIVERSE 199942, UNIVERSE 92122991, GALAXY 2991552, SOLAR SYSTEM 992412, WORLD 4 of 9, REMNANT.-
"Remnant? So, RWBY?"
-Quest Complete!-
RANK 1 Quest
Where am I?
"You have just been Shanghai'd, Isekai'd, Transmigrated, and portaled to another reality. Interogate THE GAME on where you've been transported to."
* Reward: INFORMATION*
FAILURE: IGNORANCE
"Huh. Dungeon Portal, Empty, please. I'd rather not get insta-killed by a Grimm." Carrow requested, muttering the last part under his breath.
Carrow felt a sense of vertigo as his position in reality and space changed. He looked up at a gray void sky, and around at what looked like the stereotypical 'testing facility void' for sandbox physics games. Ramps, poles, white mountains, and more covered the 'test' plane.
-WELCOME TO REALITY 9, 3rd Dimensional TEST VOID,-*
"Welcome fellow creator gods, this reality was designed for us to really let loose, so go nuts." - YAHWEH
"Huh. That's...different." Carrow said.
-CLASS STARTER PACK UNOPENED, OPEN?-
"Sure."
-Sandals-
-Loincloth-
-Heart Protector-
-Leather Harness-
-Bronze Pauldron-
-Wooden Club-
"Uh, did I get the gladiator kit?"
-Survivor Class gets a randomized starter kit.-*
"What about gas masks, tarps, tents, you know, survival stuff?"
-Complaints will be taken to Customer Services-*
"Fuck you." Carrow muttered.
-Fucks have been taken and processed.-*
Carrow opened his inventory and pulled out the gear and started putting it on sans the loincloth. Taking out the club, Carrow inspected it.
"Uh, no observe skill?"
-Observer is OP and unnecessary. Reality is not a game, you are the Gamer and thus the only one who functions like a game. The only two Observation feats given to the Gamer is Level Approximation. Level is a rough approximation of strength and ability, skill included otherwise non-powered humans would all be level 5 or there about, including someone like Batman. The second Observation feat is Integrity Value. This will have to be defined by player experience.'-
"What about HP, my HP, and damage values?-
-Physics exist.-* The game refused to elaborate.
Carrow let out an exasperated breath. 'Well, better get to it then.' Carrow thought, before gripping his club and giving it a few swings to the air.
-CLUB Mastery Unlocked-*
-Weapon Skill- Club Mastery, LvL 1: Skill with and general ability to handle a Club. Higher levels will grant damage bonuses in the form of Weapon Intent. Current Evaluation: You Fucking Suck!*
"Dick." Carrow muttered. 'Well, lets try getting this to 10 and then I'll see about general exercise. While I can't just train into becoming superman, I damn well can train to become batman.'
Carrow hit the gym.
Carrow hit the white ground of the TEST VOID dripping in sweat. His breath heaved in and out of abused lungs as he just completed his fifth mile in forty minutes. Considering he'd only been able to run one a day ago in about ten, that was really impressive.
Getting up after a short rest and having recovered some energy, Carrow still holding his club as he figured it'd only add realism to run miles holding stuff like a weapon, started to swing at the air.
- CORE SKILL - Athletic Conditioning, LVL 4; Strength, Endurance, Durability.
- CORE SKILL - Celerity, LVL 6: Swiftness of Movement, Agility, Dexterity, Balance, Coordination.
- CORE SKILL - Will Power, LVL 3: Grit, Hardship, Determination, Pain Tolerance.
- WEAPON SKILL- Club Mastery, LvL 9: Skill with and general ability to handle a Club. Current Evaluation: You STILL Fucking Suck, yet at least your swings will tickle!
His body was aching and his gut only hurt more. He was hungry and various status effects were kicking in.
-STATUS EFFECT- HUNGRY: Pain, Nausea, Dizziness, Delirium, and more. Congrats, your starving.
-STATUS EFFECT- DEHYDRATED: Pain, Hallucination, Mania, Delirium, Nausea, Headaches, Shaking, and more. Congrats, your thirsty as Hell itself.*
Carrow opened up his 'saving grace' for this affliction.
- CORE SKILL - Dungeon Portal, LVL 1: Transportation to preselected worlds and locations to cultivate growth. Empty, Goblin Forest, Zombie Apocalypse, Bandit Hideout, -Orc Army Camp-, -Wyvern Nest-... Expand.*
"Oi, game. Open a portal to the Goblin Forest, I wanna try to eat a goblin." Carrow said as he ran through options.
Zombie Apocalypse while having possible access to preserved foods, had a higher danger in his mind. Carrow didn't have a high disease resistance or anything of the sort that could stop an infection.
-Before you do, I would recommended obtaining a profession first.-*
"Oh, yeah, forgot." Carrow said. "So, list?"
-PROFESSIONS-
-Blacksmith, Leatherworker, Alchemist, Engineer, Scientist... EXPAND?-*
"Alchemist." Carrow said without much debate. Most of these were 'later' game, yet Carrow figured he could use Alchemist right off the bat. Bad alchemy, but alchemy none the less.
-ALCHEMIST-*
"It is through understanding the world and its eddies do we truly See." - Some mad lad.
Create concoctions, elixirs, poisons, potions, and drugs.*
-PROFESSION SKILL- Alchemy, LVL 1: General Skill in practicing alchemy.
-PROFESSION EXCLUSIVE SKILL- Analyze LVL 1: Analyze ingredients, reagents, and other possible substances to mix into a potion.
-Professions don't have class levels, and are based on the profession's general skill. You can freely exchange professions, yet loose the EXP Modifier when leveling said skill and its EXCLUSIVE profession skill.-*
"Cool...so goblins, forests, killing, murder, portals." Carrow listed, tapping his foot impatiently.
-Sigh-*
Carrow blacked out and woke up in ANOTHER forest.
At least he was less naked this time.
Carrow hung a dozen and a half meters in the air, his left hand biting into the hard bark and wood of the tree he was climbing on. His eyes were sharp, expression focused intently on the ground bellow his hiding place.
His appearance changed drastically. From a simple young man who was thin and somewhat chubby to an athletic and wiry individual with a severe look on his face. He projected an intense aura around him, a certain charisma that spoke of competence and ability.
Dressed in a makeshift outfit, despite the rough look, he pulled it off. From sandals and muddy feet and legs, he still wore his same black shorts although they were far more worn than they were previously.
His chest was covered in a harness of leather and a heart protector, yet over his back he had a cloak of bear hide, its head and skull covering his own. Attached to his harness and a rough belt were several sacks of dubious content. The sacks themselves were fashioned out of bladders, stomachs, and sowed skin from goblins and animals around the forest.
Inside them were powdered and ground substances he'd made from the mystical plants that were located in this forest, along with the magical properties of the animals and goblins themselves; they were something of a silver mine of reagents for his alchemy. As his level could attest to.
-PROFESSION SKILL- Alchemy, LVL 17: General Skill in practicing alchemy.
-PROFESSION EXCLUSIVE SKILL- Analyze LVL 39: Analyze ingredients, reagents, and other possible substances to mix into a potion.*
Carrow himself was under the effects of one of his creations. A white substance that look suspiciously like cocain, consumed like it too.
-Hunter's Dream-
Form: Dried Powder
"A combat drug designed to increase the awareness, senses, and perceptions of those who use it."
Ingredients: Greater Hawk's Eye, Hawk Bone, Wild Seed, and Goblin Eardrum.
INCREASED WILL
INCREASED CELERITY
INCREASED WISDOM
REDUCED INTELLIGENCE
Carrow's right hand slowly lowered to his waist and he took out a long hollowed reed, a makeshift blowgun.
Raising the weapon to his mouth, Carrow halted all action, straining his body to become as still as possible as he placed his blowgun against his lips. A flex of his abdominal muscles and his lungs decompressed, air rushed into the pipe and a dart exited silently.
A dart made of alchmeically treated bone and feathers collected from various birds flew through the air before striking deeply into the lead goblin's eye.
The goblin, a shaman of some sort squealed and screamed as its eye was ruined beyond repair. Its guards sniffed the air, darting between bushes and taking cover behind trees, not even bothering to help the wounded and poisoned goblin.
Carrow, covered in various alchemical scents and earthy mud didn't give up his position, he quickly reloaded his blowgun and fired at a goblin that peaked out of cover.
The dart thunked into the goblin's exposed shin as it peaked behind its cover, causing it to scream and join the sounds of the shaman.
-WEAPON SKILL- Blowgun, LVL 21: Skill with and general ability to handle a blowgun. Current EvaluationL You can snipe a slow moving target a decent distance away.
Goblin Shaman, LVL 24 Slain: 543 XP*
Carrow grinned as he achieved another notification.
Class LVL UP!
Player LVL UP!*
Class: Survivalist 17/100
LVL: 24
'Nice.' Carrow thought as he inventoried his blowgun and got out his club. The club itself had been 'renovated' with various molars and teeth being embedded into it with an alchemical adhesive.
Dropping from his hold, Carrow's feet slammed into a thick branch bellow him, and with a squat launched off the branch. With supernatural agility and skill that would make Olympic gymnasts cringe in shame and envy he moved.
Carrow body flew through the air, muscles gleaming with sweat and definition. His left hand grasped a lower branch from an adjacent tree as he flew and used it as a bar to throw himself further forward and into the air using his current momentum.
Falling through the air, Carrow brought his club up above his head and bellowed a war cry. His lungs screamed and deflated as he forced a nearly supernatural amount of air through his throat and mouth.
-Savage Cry Activated- LVL 9
Intimidate Foes
-Intimidate Success.
His feet landed onto the foliage and with a savage sprint Carrow charge toward the now fleeing Goblins.
His club slammed into one of the goblin's back and nape of the neck, filling him with a primal glee as he heard the sound of broken bones and abused blood vessels bursting.
-WEAPON SKILL- Club Mastery, LvL 23: Skill with and general ability to handle a Club. Higher levels will grant damage bonuses in the form of Weapon Intent. Current Evaluation: You can beat a man to death, cograulations!-
One of the goblin's spun on it's heel and hurled a rock at Carrow, one that was batted away with ease. The goblin then tripped and was promptly de-brained for its efforts.
Hungry for more, Carrow hunted the goblins and bashed them to death with his club. The only wounds he obtained were friction burns on his hands from applying acrobatic techniques on the rough tree bark of a branch.
Carrow picked up and slung one of the goblin's corpses over his back, crouching down before slinking back to a tall tree he could set up in.
Finding a rather tall tree, Carrow scaled the trunk using its somewhat slopped growth incline and the roughness of his feet for friction.
Climbing into its branches, Carrow leaned against the trunk and set the goblin down on the branch. Getting out a flint knife Carrow started flaying the greenskin off his next meal.
While not appealing in taste or really any method, most of the plants in this forest were poisonous, deadly, or hallucinogenic. Besides, it leveled his Class Skill quite nicely.
-Class Skill- Iron Gut, LVL 27, Your stomach can handle major poisons, indigestible, and food poisoning with ease.
Normally having a skill higher than his LVL would be impossible. His being LVL 24 and him having a lvl 27 skill shouldn't have happened, yet it did due to a simple fact.
RANKS.
He was RANK 1, and thus all skills were able to be leveled up to 1-100.
The difference with leveling them up this way, would be that he wouldn't get any EXP modifier from being higher leveled than his skills.
If Carrow was LVL 100 and had leveled Iron Gut like he was now, it'd likely already be around lvl 60-70.
This could be seen as his Club Mastery was merely LVL 23, or 'maxed out', well, it would have been if he hadn't leveled up.
THIS IS WHERE I STOPPED WRITING, ALSO, FUCK FORMATING, FUCK GOBLINS, and have a nice day.
