Disclaimer
I own nothing of Marvel or anything. And I get no money from this fanfic and I only own my OC's/Original characters.
6th of February/2024
It was early in the morning when the chaos ensued within the Lotvall home. A crazed gunman burst into the house with his shotgun in hand while having Ragnar and his mother Asa downstairs in the living room while policemen and swat gathered outside of the home.
This gunman was a wanted criminal from the recent news stories about some recent gang warfare. This man is one of the known leaders of the Hatchet gang. A splintered group from the Yakuza that migrated into the states and slowly became a rival force within New York.
"Shut the fuck up! I don't care about some damned rumors about the fucking 'Hand'! They ain't real and I'm going to prove it here and now by taking out anyone who gets in my fucking way!" The crazed man said while holding a cell phone in his off hand before throwing it to the ground and stomping on it with more than enough force to shatter the thing to pieces.
"If you're looking for money, we can give you whatever you want. Please just let us go." Asa pleaded with the man. Her brown hair was messy while she was still dressed in her floor length nightgown that looked more like an overcoat compared to a thin gown. Ragnar himself was in sweatpants and a tank top since he hurried downstairs when he heard his mother yell.
"Shut up! I'm the one callin' the shots here bitch!" The man shouted in anger while tightly gripping his shotgun.
Ragnar knew that he had to do something, so he tried thinking about what he could do to get his mother and himself out of this dangerous situation.
The policemen started talking to the man via a megaphone from outside the house and asked for his surrender which he kept refusing.
'Think Ragnar, think.' Ragnar said to himself mentally before he remembered that yesterday he had managed to test out a feature of his RPG powers which was his Inventory space. A small pocket dimension capable of holding a limited number of items depending on their size and weight. Within his pocket dimensions is a makeshift teargas bomb from yesterday's chemistry class.
Calling it a bomb would be a stretch, but it was corked and in a glass vial. The substance wouldn't be poisonous unless ingested and simply had a disgusting smell, but it was something. So, while the man was shouting at the police from behind the wall and away from the windows. Ragnar summoned his Inventory space behind his back where his hands where and quickly took out the smoke bomb before he quickly stood up and threw it as hard as he could at the man.
The glass vial shattered on the wall in front of the man and instantly burst into a cloud of vapors that had the man's eyes watering as he started hacking and cursing. Apparently, he wasn't too smart since he dropped his gun and ran out of the front door before face planting on the ground and wiping his face before the police quickly dove on top of him.
"Ragnar." Asa said in mild shock at how her son seemed to summon the glass vial out of thin air.
The police quickly entered the residence and after a lengthy area control routine a detective started asking both Asa and Ragnar some questions. Have they heard of the gunman? Have they done anything illegal? Why do you think you were targeted? How did you manage to make him escape without the firearm? And so on.
Asa spoke for herself and her son and covered for her son by saying that he had brought a school science project downstairs with him when the man burst in.
After making sure everything and everyone was ok. The police left with the criminal in a police car. The Lotvall home was quiet as mother, and son went upstairs and into the son's bedroom where they both sat on the bed and had a lengthy conversation.
"Mom…I-"
"It's okay Ragnar. You're my son and I don't care if you're a mutant. If it wasn't for you, our home would be riddled with bullet holes. But I wish you would have told me about your mutant genes triggering." Asa replied while assuming that Ragnar's powers were based on mutation and frankly, Ragnar couldn't disprove that aside from his status sheet saying that he was simply 'human' instead of a mutant, but he didn't want to confuse or bother his mother with the logistics.
"I just…This is all so weird. These powers that I have…I didn't know how to tell you or anyone about them. I don't want people trying to kill me or you just because of these random powers that I've got barely any control of." Ragnar said honestly before his mother gave him a hug.
"You remind me so much of your father. You both try to hide things to keep me safe. But that trait isn't going to fly with me a second time young man. I want you to tell me everything. No secrets or half-truths. I want the full story about when these powers of yours started to surface and what you can do." Asa said with a smile and Ragnar spilled everything to his mother.
His powers and the videogame themed nature of them. Apparently, his mother was a bit of a gamer before she had him, but Ragnar wasn't sure his mother believed him until he took a schoolbook out of his inventory before her eyes.
"So, you have the powers of an RPG hero along with having access to your stats along with perks, an Inventory and a quest log?" Asa asked.
"Yeah. It's weird and I know it sounds crazy."
"Ragnar, the Avengers have the literal God of Thunder on their team. Things can't get much crazier than that." Asa sassed her son making him smirk and look away from a bit to avoid laughing at his mother's smug bluntness.
"True, but this is still a lot to deal with. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with these weird powers."
"Maybe you don't have to do anything with them right now. If you have powers like this, maybe you could have an easier time getting a career. Like dumping a lot of points into Intelligence so you can become an award-winning doctor or lawyer." Asa said and Ragnar couldn't say that the idea hadn't crossed his mind.
"Maybe your right mom. And maybe it wouldn't kill me to start exercising and stuff. I have to be in better shape if I want to protect you from bad people like that gangbanger." Ragnar said while his mother gave him another hug before she left for her own room.
Quest Alert!
Name: Grinding!
You have been at the mercy of a weakling and decided to change your ways. Go, conquer a dungeon.
Objective 1: Follow the quest marker on your HUD to the dungeon!
Objective 2: Clear the dungeon!
Rewards: 2,000 XP, 1 Loot Box, Access to the [Shop]!
Failure: Staying weak!
Do you accept this quest? Y/N?
Ragnar couldn't help but hesitate a bit at this quest since it was literally sending him to go off and fight a real-life dungeon. Ragnar didn't even know if a dungeon followed the traditional rules of an RPG since this is real life instead of a game. But the way this quest spoke to him about being weak had somehow gotten under his skin and after a moment of hesitation, he clicked the accept button and saw a map marker appear in the lower center of his vision along with a clock telling him the day, time and season.
That HUD wasn't available to him until just now, meaning that his powers might have more than what he originally thought, but since the quest wasn't a time limit one, he decided too simply do it tomorrow. He needed to rest after the ordeal he had just gone through, and he knew that his mother wasn't going to let him outside any time soon.
7th of February/2024
It was early in the morning when Ragnar left his home in a gray hoodie and black jeans and sneakers. The sun was rising, and his mother was still sleeping, his phone was stashed in his Inventory along with a sharp kitchen knife as he followed his HUD towards the 'Dungeon' or whatever it was that Ragnar was being sent to.
A million questions ran through Ragnar's head while he walked the streets of Queens New York. The main one, however, was why did the quest bother him so much. He had been called worse things than weak, but the moment he thought that he remembered the stories and teachings his father had told him before he passed away.
The name Lotvall came from a proud and powerful clan of Vikings. They honored strength, pride, never ending will and more. The clan was strong but was wiped out by someone stronger. Ragnar's father told him that to be a Viking you must be strong not weak and after his father passed. Ragnar and his mother both seemed to lose their fire and will. Asa went to drink for a time while Ragnar gave up his pride in his ancestry and became a target for bullies.
He lost his way. And the quest screen sparked the dead fire in him again. A fire that needed to be lit again and a fire that would soon grow into an inferno. Ragnar had a serious look on his face as determination filled him like it had long ago when he was a child. All sense of time passed before Ragnar appeared in front of the 'Dungeon' entrance.
The entrance was an abandoned arcade near the south side of Queens and put in a place where nobody would notice if someone wandered in or not. So, Ragnar went to the doorknob to open it before seeing a new message appear in front of his eyes.
Warning! You are about to enter the [Skaven I] Dungeon! Recommended level: 5! Would you like to enter the dungeon? Y/N?
"I'm under leveled but that is the entire point of me being here." Ragnar said before he hit the accept button and entered the ruined arcade building. The inside of it was lined with various games and machines and Ragnar had no clue where to look in order to actually see the real dungeon themed parts of the place, so he went into the managers office first and found a bloody skeleton that made his skin crawl and fear swell in his chest before he noticed several notes on the desk that he picked up and decided to read.
[Dear: Supreme Hydra
We have made excellent progress with project Skaven thanks to the resources given to us by the Hand. We've barely scratched the surface of occult knowledge back during the second world war and now we are nearly ready to throw the world into another war with wave after wave of disposable soldiers that will obey our will completely.
As lead scientist of this secret location, I can only report success after success with the Skaven projects development.]
"The Skaven project?" Ragnar asked himself while looking over the other notes that went over the Skaven who were created by forced evolutionary science with the help of some scientific compound known as Warpstone which is something that Ragnar never even heard of before. "The fact that Hydra is here under Shield's nose is extremely concerning." Ragnar said before he stashed the notes away in his Inventory before he looked under the desk and saw a red button.
According to the detailed notes. This button would lead into the actual laboratory/containment zone of the Skaven monsters that they had created. Ragnar saw the wall behind the desk separate itself and reveal a long steel walled hallway lit up with florescent lights.
"Time to go on a dungeon raid."
Ragnar walked down the hall while the sliding door closed behind him and after a short walk he came up to a small room with a doorway leading to the right but in the center of the room was a technologically advanced storage chest and after giving it a kick to see if it was trapped or anything, Ragnar opened it and was rewarded with what he could only assume was a starter set of equipment.
"I've got a hatchet." Ragnar said as he had gotten a single-handed metal hatchet with a wooden grip and nothing else. So, with the hatchet in hand, Ragnar went towards the door to the right and walked through it to see another passageway, but this time he saw a bizarre monster in front of him.
The thing was basically a humanoid and skinless rat with small patches of rough and dirty fur along with wearing rags and is holding a spear in its hands. The humanoid rat was roughly the size of a small child and it quickly noticed Ragnar before it let out some kind of battle cry before it charged at Ragnar, who quickly moved out of the way of its spear thrust before he slammed his hatchet down on the things head as hard as he could.
His aim was off, and he hit the Ratmen's neck, but the hatchet cut deep enough to hit bone and have the monster go limp as blood spurted out from the cut and splashed onto Ragnar's hand while he was heavily breathing with wide eyes at what had just happened.
Would you like to loot 'Skavenslave'? Y/N?
Ragnar slowly hit the yes button before he saw new items deposited into his inventory.
1x Rat leather right arm guard
1x Random skill book
1x Skaven Long Johns
Ragnar swallowed the lump in his throat before he went into his inventory and equipped the arm guard and saw that covering his arm from his wrist to his shoulder is a black leather protective arm piece that was rather thin and didn't have good durability, but Ragnar was thankful to have something at least. He didn't equip the long johns since they were gross looking, and he quickly took out the skill book and with a press of the button he learned the skill.
Skill!
Name: Hand Axe Mastery
Level: 1
You have learned how to fight with hand axes which are a step down in power from a great axe, but these have more speed and flexibility to compensate.
Increases slashing damage by 2!
Ragnar dismissed the screen before he continued on with walking through this frankly large facility. Ragnar had to fight various Skaven and gained some decent skill along with some more armor pieces before he ended up in a small room that looked to be some kind of laboratory where he killed one last Skavenslave before he leveled up.
The skill [CQC] has leveled up! Level: 5-6!
The skill [Hand Axe Mastery] has leveled up! Level: 9-10!
You have leveled up! Level: 2-3! You have gained 1 Perk Point!
"The more INT I have the more XP I can get, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to get a perk from the list." Ragnar said to himself before looking at the list of available perks he could gain based on his skills, stats and level.
[Perk Points: 1]
Perk!
Name: Big Leagues
Rank: 1
You can generate enough force energy to have your melee weapons hit harder.
All melee weapon damage is increased by 20%
Melee weapon damage ignores 10% of enemy DT
[Perk Points: 0]
"That can help make things go a bit faster." Ragnar commented before summoning up his equipment display to see how his armor was doing.
Equipment!
Head: None
[First Layer] Torso: Gray Hoodie [30/30 Durability]
[Second Layer] Torso: Rat Leather cuirass [36/40 Durability]
Pauldrons: None
Right Arm: Rat Leather arm guard [15/20 Durability]
Left Arm: Rat Leather arm guard [15/20 Durability]
Belt: None
Pants: Jeans [30/30 Durability]
[Second Layer] Cod Piece: Rat Leather cod piece [20/20 Durability]
[Second Layer] Right leg: Rat Leather leg greave [17/20 Durability]
[Second Layer] Left Leg: Rat Leather leg greave [20/20 Durability]
Shoes: Sneakers [25/25 Durability]
Ring Slot 1: None
Ring Slot 2: None
Necklace: None
Accessory Slot: None
End
"I took a few hits from some club wielding Skaveslaves but my durability still looks good all things considered. Now what is this place?" Ragnar asked after looting the corpse and looking around the laboratory and saw various dead Skaven on lab tables along with long dead experiments in test tubes and Skaven floating in large vats of green ooze.
It didn't take long for Ragnar to find a working computer and long into it thanks to some of the computer notes he picked up from dead Hydra soldiers and discovered that this was one of the engineering labs to create the basic Skaven troops with Warpstone.
Warpstone was a dangerous element that Hydra and the Hand managed to use. It mutates living flesh and either kills the person it comes into contact with, or it has them evolve into some horrible monster as a result. They first tried using homeless people as test subjects before realizing that human victims of Warpstone were too dangerous and unpredictable, so they started using rats and the rest is history as they say.
"This place is crazy. Hydra and some bad guys called the Hand are basically plotting to start another war with these 'Skaven' as their soldiers. A never-ending wave of cannon fodder to exhaust any resistance before the Hydra troops enter the battle." Ragnar said while tightly gripping his hand axe with narrowed eyes. "I can't let something like this continue."
Ragnar took a glance at his weapon before stashing it into his inventory and replaced it with a hand axe that the skaven troops had dropped before he decided to leave the laboratory and make his way to the final room of this dungeon aka the boss room.
The room was sealed off thanks to a code locked scanner but once again, Ragnar had picked up a lot of notes and knew the entry code to the dual steel reinforced doors that slowly opened to reveal a moderately sized room affectionately called the 'Pit'. According the to Hydra information, the Pit served as a testing ground for certain Skaven to rise through the ranks by proving they were strong and killing other Skaven to earn a high place in the food chain, and the dozens of Skaven bodies on the ground proved it.
"Another man-thing has come to play-play." A shrill voice said from the center of the room. The source was a Skaven that was a bit taller and bulkier than normal and wearing some decent looking metallic armor with a red cape on its back while it is holding a long sword in one hand and a circular shield in the other along with heaving a metallic helmet on its rat-like head.
"You're a Stormvermin. Your creators took careful notes about the various types of Skaven they created." Ragnar said before getting into a ready stance.
"True-True. Stormvermin Swiss is my name man-thing. I will skewer you and gnaw on your flesh-bones." Swiss said before it charged at Ragnar who prepared himself for a fight before ducking under a sword swing and countering with his own hatchet strike but saw that his blow recoiled from the armor before he was knocked back by Swiss attacking with his shield and bashing him into the ground.
Ragnar quickly rolled out of the way of a diving sword thrust while ignoring the gore and blood that now stuck to him before he kicked the Skaven back as hard as he could.
Monster or not, the Skaven weren't as strong as he was physically, and thanks to all the exercise in this dungeon, his physical stats had gone up a bit. Still, Ragnar kept up the pressure by summoning a second hatchet in his off hand and attacked with both, forcing Swiss on the defensive while Ragnar heard his father's voice telling him of a mantra that once belonged to his ancestors.
'Strength over weakness. Pride over softness. Victory over defeat. The blood of the first men flows within us and gives us strength.'
Those words repeated in Ragnar's head while he slashed, bashed and kicked Swiss back into a defensive posture behind his shield before he charged forward and parried one of Ragnar's axe swings and countered with a slash of his sword that cut into his leather torso armor and had Ragnar take a step back.
'If I hadn't equipped that armor, I would be dead right now. But this isn't the time to focus on that.' Ragnar thought to himself before he charged once again to the winded Skaven who aimed to slash Ragnar in two with a shrill battle cry before Ragnar took advantage of a single armor piece that the Skaven lacked. So, after blocking the overhead sword slash with both his axes. Ragnar raised his foot and kicked Swiss in the coin purse as they say.
Swiss' eyes practically came out of their sockets as he screeched in pain and dropped his sword. Ragnar capitalized by ramming into him with a shoulder tackle as hard as he could, which knocked the Skaven onto his back before Ragnar stepped on his shield holding arm and brought both axes down hard onto the Skaven's head and cleaved it in two.
Boss: Stormvermin Swiss, has been defeated! Generating loot.
1x Stormvermin Cape
1x Steel Rat Helm
1x Reinforced Wooden Shield
1x Steel long sword
"Damn." Ragnar said with heavy breaths of exhaustion before he pulled his hatchets back from the skull with a sick squelching noise and headed to the end of the room where there was a broken doorway leading into yet another room, but this one seemed to be more like a command room of sorts with a one way glass window to show the people in the room what kind of carnage could happen in the 'Pit'.
Nothing else of importance was within the viewing room except for a large map of New York along with several marked locations of Skaven dens and Hydra bases.
"Thanks." Ragnar said to the skeleton that was placed in the seat in front of the map on the small table before he placed the map and his weapons into his Inventory before he headed towards the single exposed elevator and walked into it to see that it only had two buttons.
The Pit was the bottom button and the surface lead back to the arcade floor. More specifically it led to the series of broken vending machines that slid apart to allow Ragnar to exit the elevator as he saw them slide back into place when the elevator doors closed.
"Hydra is seriously going to start a war, and nobody knows about it. I have to do something." Ragnar said before he unequipped his armor and used an old towel in the locker room to clean the blood off him before he left the dungeon and saw that he had completed his quest and gained some new skills.
Skill
Name: Dual Wielding
Level: 1
You have learned how to handle two weapons at the same time with little issue.
Increases weapon damage of each weapon by 10%
Skill
Name: Cross Guard
Level: 1
When you have two weapons equipped you are capable of using them both to block a weapon from hitting you.
Blocks 10% of damage.
Quest Complete!
Name: Name: Grinding!
Objective 1: Follow the quest marker on your HUD to the dungeon! [x]
Objective 2: Clear the dungeon! [x]
Rewards: 2,000 XP, 1 Loot Box, Access to the [Shop]!
You have leveled up! Level: 3-4-5! You have gained 2 Perk Points!
[Perk Points: 2]
STR: 7-8!
[Perk Points: 1]
STR: 8-9
[Perk Points: 0]
Ragnar increased his strength and felt a noticeable change in his muscles and body. He felt lighter than before and when he balled up his fists, he noticed that his grip strength increased as well.
Ragnar headed home after taking his cell phone out of his inventory and noticed that he had missed some calls from his mother.
"I won't be weak anymore. Father, I'll make you and my ancestors proud. I swear." Ragnar said while focusing on his next steps in getting stronger and doing what he can to help possibly stop Hydra.
Quest Alert!
Name: Hydra Invasion
The Nazi's aka Hydra are planning to plunge the world into another great war in order to rule it with no resistance from the governments or the heroes. You have to help stop them.
Ragnar didn't bother looking at the rewards or objectives before he accepted the quest and the responsibility that came with it.
END!
A/N: I'm not going to lie. A bit of this story is not only inspired by the Fudgemuppet Viking character build, on Youtube but it is also inspired by the Gamer manga and solo levelling because they are peak fiction. Also, it seems that the game has some options and abilities that are outright visible to our hero at the moment, so who knows what can happen.
P.S: It is also inspired by Warhammer Verminhide 2…But the game is buggy as shit and that pisses me off.