Fire Emblem Nightmare

by OurInnocentSins

[Archive] A FE 3 Houses story, a rewrite of my Fire Emblem Dreaming story with Gamer System elements (mostly flavor text) that I hope you enjoy! Both the FE3H and isekai parts feature some AU elements. Check out my thread on Questionable questing to watch it develop in real time if your into that sort of thing. Updates come like every 2 weeks ish

7. Good Intentions

Chapter 7, Good Intentions

I was too tired to reach the place on the same day I caught sight of the colossal settlement. Even if it wasn't this particular nation's capital, both its size on the map and to my very eyes ensured that it held a far bit of significance to the people here.

The cubs were restless, little bodies vibrating from the position sneaking through the forest right beside me. With my eyes they knew not to disturb my hunt as I crept up on a rabbit, a hare really that was none the wiser. Halting my approach once its large ears twitched and flicked up after one of our feet snapped a twig by stepping upon it.

Holding my breath completely was a mistake that I had made earlier on, failing to get close enough for striking range. Steady but slow worked better to allow my body to make far more careful movements.

Regardless, the hare returned to its grazing after spending a small snippet of time while completely hidden by the trunk of a pine tree. Unknown to it my knife was in my right hand being held up by the blade as I drew back so that it could be thrown.

Catch hadn't exactly been a game that I had been able to play with dear ol' dad, nor was I very into baseball. So the odds of me hitting even hitting the damn animal wasn't very high, but again not zero. With so many more eyes and ears at my disposal I had done some testing as to my ability to successfully land hits. A proper scientist would probably be salivating about the results that I had received but that's par for the course since I had come here.

THUNK!

2 Knife Mastery

The thing's last expression was just as alien as the first, popping its head up to stare at me while the switchblade was twirling through the air. A dull thud knocked the damn thing into the afterlife, the noise alerting the rest of the herd (?) that they needed to flee. Approaching the dead body I wretched my knife free, it seemed that the blade had become embedded into its skull. Hopefully killing the animal the instant that the blow reached its head

Don't get me wrong, I love the countryside, but it is not my natural habitat and likely won't be for many more years to come. Wild animals just tend to creep me out, bunnies and dogs rank higher for me than hares and wolves.

I gave the pups the majority of the carcass, the head and the body and what not. Severing both the front and hind legs for myself, cutting through the spongy parts that kept the bones so connected. The little guys had earned a proper meal, and while it was probably better to cook it for them, removing the gross shit was not a skill I possessed.

Dissecting a frog for my alchemy class years ago was the farthest that I had ever gotten. Pretty fun elective, though we hadn't gone into skinning animals or other ways of preparing dead game for consumption.

Building a fire was something that I had to learn since finding my own way. Though I think using a mixture of magic or lighter might be considered cheating by all metrics. Regardless, with a healthy amount of tinder the fire that I had started was soon large enough so that I would be able to cook the meat. If I had salt with me I would've been able to keep the venison for longer.

A part of me had rolled the idea around in my head to freeze the meat for future use, testing hard revealed it to be a poor idea. While fire was fairly straight forward after you pass the threshold that is casting magic, the rest was merely basic chemistry. Fuel, heal, oxygen and a chemical chain reaction; That understanding had formed the backbone of my capacity to conjure flames.

Freezing shit was undoubtedly harder due to my lack of understanding, and while I knew my chemistry the process refused to work. I was still able to bring shards of ice into existence, but that required tapping into the magical tome in my possession. Magic as I was learning very quickly, was quite finicky even in the most favorable of conditions to conduct my experimentation.

Watching the thin slice of meat in front of me take on a singed shade of black I released a hiss of annoyance. One of the pups crept up behind me, through its own eyes I spied its desire on the legs of the rabbit. To this I smacked the wolf on the nose as an admonishment causing the canine to yip and run off without a meaty prize between its jaws.

I have gotten off topic, magic, ice, food preservation, and all that great stuff. While I can make ice, the process doesn't seem to actually spread to objects. Nor does the magical frost seem to cool anything down, closer to dry ice from the way its slow melting leaked an unidentifiable vapor as opposed to liquid water.

On one hand I could be doing it incorrectly, my control over magically conjured flames were several times greater than that with ice. My guess that my unconscious mind was filling in the blanks while using a tome to fill in what my conscious mind could not. The 'how' was infinitely harder to pin down, and likely lied within the greater realm of physics instead of chemistry.

Speaking of physics, I physically regret not taking some of the rabbit's belly. Don't get me wrong, my first taste of meat in weeks was fan-fucking-tastic, but if I had one complaint to make about it? Very much an acquired taste from how chewy it is to tear apart, and could use some ketchup to be honest.

Using magic to maybe conjure food out of nothing would've been a gift straight from the gods, though I don't think God would approve. Aside from the potential blasphemy that I'm committing but flexing my magical muscles, the use of such mystic arts had an additional issue attached to them. That being energy efficiency, a fact that I become increasingly more aware as I gained more experience in the field.

Magic made me progressively more hungry the more I made use of my talents. I had only figured it out after burning the village to the ground, stuck with nothing else to distract the growing pit in my stomach as it burned.

The cracking and snapping of animal's bones going on behind was fairly distracting, and I did my best to ignore the foreign sensations. While I do tend to have more of an active appetite these days, those little monsters usually manage to ruin it whenever I wanted to chow down.

Honestly, ever since that fresh bout of snowfall, the remnants of which I could still feel squished under my feet. The novelty had worn off long ago after it had turned out that the city that I was headed to was actually farther than I had previously thought. If my socks had become soaked through while traveling downhill my desire to jump off a cliff would've gone sky high. While most of my body was soaked, cold, and uncomfortable, the single saving grace were my waterproof boots.

Modern clothing takes another win, and while putting on the rest of my clothing from back home was a tempting thought. Unfortunately since I was closing in on where I knew that other people would be the melted snow had to stick around. Though I had since swapped out my cloak for my winter coat that I had come here with.

That along with stuffing myself with the first proper meal that I'd had in weeks left me feeling like a king. A very soggy and fairly exhausted monarch that could've gone for another nap, but royalty nonetheless.

Another of the pups licked at my open palm, the smallest of the trio looking from scraps while her siblings bit into the bones I had left behind. I had dried myself with a rag, but it did little to deter the cubs when they had a case of the nibbles. With the lingering flames of my campfire dying with a sudden cold breeze that swept past me, the danger posed by the woods became readily apparent once more. Taking in a deep breath I blew hot air into my cold hands before I rose to my feet, bringing my coat in closer to shield me from the elements.

Everything groaned, my whole body aching after being forced into motion again and away from the dead source of heat. The little groove that I had stumbled upon was a mix of white spattering the ground, much of the landscape painted with it. Some bushes remained in better shape than the trees, the only source of food apart from grass in this forest. Though when the floor wasn't covered in white the brown dirt underneath could be seen.

The amount of times that I had found a stubborn patch of dying grass could be counted on one hand alone. Stepping through a patch of saplings that afforded me a view farther in the forest my eyes flickered over to the east. It was a distant sound, recognizing it as a tree or something collapsing through the echo of a sensation. Piggy backing off the senses of the cubs was usually more trouble than it was normally worth, but I had learned to allow some leaks. Being able to pick up on where scents had been carried in from helped with hunting.

"Fuck-"

Looking east in anticipation I stood out in the open, tracking the first couple of trees that fell to the floor on the distant hill. It was far enough that I had kept walking, fully intending to ignore the weird happenings as I had better things to do. Unfortunately it had suddenly gone silent, the forest a deadly calm with the wolves huddling closer to me.

I didn't like it one bit, hiding under the fallen trunk as I covered myself with snow. The pure white mixed much better to hide my presence than if I had dove into the underbrush with my brown cloak. My precautionary measure later turned out to be unnecessary, though not for the reason one would imagine.

"AURGH!" A goddamn bear flew through the air, sailing a god twenty feet before it came back to earth. The beast's yells pierced the sky only to be cut off upon hitting a tree on its way down, "GAURH-"

'What in the fuck?!'

I was at a loss for words. My proverbial jaw had fallen to the floor, even more so when the damn thing got back up again. Walking off being shot out a cannon looking more pissed off than injured as it shook it's torso free of snow that had fallen onto its coat. A sliver of respect peaked through my disbelief for the large brown bear that had landed around a hundred feet from me.

Lv. 25, Dire Bear

HP: 40/53 Mv: 15

Str: 31 Lck: 13

Mag: 0 Def: 39

Dex: 23 Res: 22

Spd: 18 Cha: 7

The roar it released shook me down to my bones, forcing me and the cubs to lay closer to the ground than I already was. My question, which was half way out to ask as to what in the Why it decided to scream out into the forest from where it had been thrown, was answered.

Several others toppled over, a great black beast with smooth scales entered the clearing chasing after its prey. To even think of a fucking bear as prey seemed preposterous. Especially when the ursa in particular looked to be in a whole weight class of its own above that of the good old grizzles back home. Meeting its distorted growls the bear stepped back onto its hind legs and roared before it slammed back down. The creature's attempt at a roar of it's own failed to match its opponent's volume, shaking it's head in anger over the steel muzzle placed over it's jaw.

'?', Lv. 13 Wild Demonic Beast, [Prototype Abomination]

HP: 17/17 Mv: 10

Str: 14 Lck: 8

Mag: 21 Def: 28

Dex: 17 Res: 24

Spd: 15 Cha: 4

If I could've looked within myself at that very moment, any sense of bravado seemed to wither while in that creature's presence. Didn't take much for my brain to inform me that the obese iguana was a threat of particular concern, just like Anna's sudden appearance had been. .

[Enemy Phase]

Whatever hope that I had been holding onto that I'd avoid being dragged into their fight was dashed as one of the abomination's eyes met my gaze. Several more swung over to stare at me, and despite my better instincts I stayed put as it took a single step toward me. The bear, unlike myself, took the opportunity to charge the larger animal despite the slight limp it bore in its gait. It was a valiant attempt, feeling truly grateful even if the bear never even noticed me.

The Abomination's metallic muzzle was knocked aside by the monstrous ursa, being flung backward into a nearby pine tree. One of the various spikes that littered its body became stuck in the trunk, leaving it open for the bear to tear out a chunk of its neck. Some of the chains that kept the beast's muzzle secure snapped under the blow, the warped dinosaur bellowed out a hybrid screamed overlaid overtop a roar.

My hair was on end even as I looked away from the battle going on before me, commanding the cubs to the best of my ability to stay put. Neither of these monsters were something that I could outrun, and I could assume that the bear would win. Seeing as the open wound dripping with sizzling black blood was already beginning to stitch itself back together.

[Player Phase]

Power flowed through my veins, several cups of coffee worth of adrenaline flooded my body as I became tense with the mana cycling in my body. There was not a chance in hell that I would be able to put a dent into either one of those monsters. Be that as it may, I choose to skirt around to the other side of the conflict as I gathered magic and set it aside in my offhand.

Fuel, there was plenty of it to go around as the normal fat that I'd tear into for casting a spell was substituted with adrenaline. Taking in deeper breaths as I tried to get as close as possible without drawing either of the beast's attention. Mana stuffed itself next to the oxygen in my lungs, a new layer of understanding akin to instincts that I never knew I had. All it needed was a spark to light the fuse.

All of my focus shrunk down to a single point, and alien runes that came to life around my hands pulsed with light. Instead of briefly flickering and collapsing they persisted, a long string of fire burst forward from the magic circle in the air ahead of me. Drawing the ire of the truly inhuman beast as I swung my arms in front of me and allowing a trail of flame to spew forth. Bathing the disgusting salamander that reeked of hot garbage left out on summer's day to burn in orange flames.

9 Damage!

PANG!

The bear backed away before it could be caught up in the blazing heat, the distinct sound of the creature's muzzle snapped as the thing ROARED. A great cloud of dust, dirt and snow was flung into the air as it attempted to shake its head free of what remained of the muzzle. It didn't get very far along to actually claw the contraption of its face, its oddly dexterous fingers found themselves burning before much progress could be made.

9 Damage!

89 Experience!

LEVEL UP!

'\[8/'

Monk

HP: 28 1 Mv: 2

Str: 10 1 Lck: 9 0

Mag: 18 1 Def: 11 1

Dex: 9 1 Res: 18 1

Spd: 13 1 Cha: 4 1

132 Experience points until the next level up!

Incidentally, the only reason I stopped was because it was actively trying to put an end to my life. Having to dodge off to the side to avoid being clotheslined by the creature's tail as it wildly rolled around in the snow.

[Status Effect: Paralysis]

The bear that had been watching stalked off to the side, approaching the scrambling lizard as it attempted to ward off the ursa with a threat. My skin crawled at the purple smoke coming out of its jaw, freed from its former constraints. Knocking the mockery of a komodo dragon to the floor wasn't what I would've done. Even if I had been able to tear off one of the reptile's legs as the unnaturally large bear stood over its scaley opponent, victorious.

Spitting out the limb before it could swallow part of its prey as a stream of dark red blood ran down from one of its eyes. While it was distracted the Zilla knock off was recovering, part of it's severed leg already replaced with a large black scab. Leathery gray skin was cut off where great chunks of flesh had been torn free from the enraged beast's body. Rushing over to the reptiles flank the bright yellow sigils of my magic came back into existence, "Oh no you don't."

With so much of the body exposed I took the opportunity to finish the gecko that had managed to crawl out of hell. Staring the fucker right in his angry eyes as my fire cauterized the wound around his neck, but just kept going after that. Smoke eventually replaced the scent of toxicity emanating from the creature's corpse while black puss leaked from every inch of its skin once it stopped screaming.

10 Damage!

94 Experience!

It almost sounded human.

Turning over to face the other beasts I found it looking right back at me, my body a few degrees colder. Drained after using my own body heat to keep the magically conjured flamethrower going. While I could go for around another round or two the adrenaline was already doing most of the heavy lifting at this point.

"Uh," The bear hadn't made a single noise, only holding a look with its ears pinned back like it was sizing me up. Now that I had time to really take in the beast it was much larger than an ordinary grizzly, being taller than me even on all fours. I wasn't a midget either unless you were to consider a man at 5'10 a dwarf. Generally I preferred to think that that detail wasn't why my last relationship went to shit. I prayed that this wouldn't go as poorly as that had, "We cool? Enemy of my enemy and all that?"

[Enemy Phase]

The oversized Teddy bear turned out to be especially not cool with me kill-stealing it appeared. Barrelling at me at mach 'fuck you', turning it's sideways as it trapped me within it's jaws. Pulverizing my arms that I had held up in a placating gesture instantly, my vision going white while I witnessed myself die from four separate angles.

Painful couldn't quite cover it, over a dozen bones shattered simultaneously from being nearly bitten in half. My internals were an absolute shitshow while any grip that I had on my magic was ready to build up and retaliate with bursting free from my body like a water balloon.

- 29 HP 0/29

Nothing could've prepared me for how much agony that I was put through in such a short amount of time. Shortly blacking out as the pain became too much for my brain to process, and as it turned out too much for one of the wolf pups either.

I wasn't aware of what exactly happened, not of the particulars until I finally came to. Feeling like death had looked me over and found nothing much of interest to warrant his attention shortly before moving on with his day. Waking up in a cold sweat I pushed myself up with my right elbow, too stunned and stuck shaking with disbelief to stand.

A furred leg stood planted against the ground just a few inches away from my face as I looked out with surprisingly intact eyes. The sight sent pure terror through my veins, the ghost of wounds ached all along my body. I could feel all the puncture wounds around my body as new tears dribbled down from my eyes from the crippling pain.

The bear's deep throaty growl brought me back to the present, it took everything to muffled my cries and from bolting immediately. I had stopped bleeding, and while I was in agony this was probably my only chance.

[Player Phase]

One of the wolves growling at the beast as it lumbered over my body, seeing no point in going through the effort of killing a corpse. I had no intention of making it think any differently as I crawled through the bloodied snow out from under the beast. My pain turned to anger as my senses came back to me while I found that the connection that I had with the cubs had been thrown into disarray.

My exposed flesh threatened to rupture under the sudden influx of mana, the crackling of combustion rampant in my ears. The fat bastard ears perked up at the sound of my yells to draw the beast's attention to myself, "GO TO FUCKING HELL!"

The taste of scorched blood in the air tasted great as the flames melted the fur and flesh from the beast. I only managed to get a second off before the bear covered its own face with his paws. Burying his face on the snow and leaving his back exposed for the fire to turn large swaths of the animal's fur black.

24 Damage!

113 Experience!

He'd gotten lucky, taking advantage of my mercy because I'd considered him a lesser evil compared to the nightmarish lizard. A look of hunger was replaced by surprise as the furry fuck turned over to look back at me. I saw a reflection of a trembling wolf cub in its eyes, and a bloodied corpse surrounded by fluctuating orange light through the other side.

LEVEL UP!

'\[9/'

Monk

HP: 29 0 Mv: 2

Str: 11 1 Lck: 9 0

Mag: 19 0 Def: 12 0

Dex: 10 0 Res: 19 1

Spd: 14 0 Cha: 5 1

144 Experience points until the next level up!

Bursting forth from the snow that the bear had buried his head into for safety from my attack, the ursine roared at me with bloodshot eyes. The was rotting purple muscle amongst the red in its mouth as I was sprayed with droplets of the ursine's own blood.

[Status Effect: Poisoned]

[Enemy-

Pure hate was the sole thing running through my mind as I raised both hands to immediately force out a second Blaze despite the strain it placed on my racing heart. But compared to my pseudo death though? The pain that came from my heart rate jumping up to 170 from 150 was nothing in the heat of the moment. Gladly putting my body through the hellish conditions to keep the chemical reaction stable.

22 Damage!

198 Experience!

It wasn't my choice to stop, but my body just couldn't keep going and the flames just sputtered out before they died. My own heartbeat raced in my ears, rapid thumps banging against my skull as my body shook uncontrollably. Wrapped in the cold air of the forest that swept in once the flames went out, doing no favors for my frosty bones. Icy shards of air stabbed my exposed flesh and throbbing veins from where my coat had been torn open.

LEVEL UP!

'\[10/'

Monk

HP: 29 1 Mv: 2

Str: 12 1 Lck: 9 0

Mag: 19 1 Def: 12 1

Dex: 10 0 Res: 20 1

Spd: 14 1 Cha: 6 0

181 Experience points until the next level up!

There was too much pain running through my body to shut down and hyperventilate, breaking down would've been a death sentence out here in the cold. Even so I couldn't stop shaking, too exhausted for tears as I returned to my belonging hidden within the alcove.

20 Reason, 8 Class Mastery, & 4 Authority

One of the cubs was dead, with another passed out in the snow that I had to check whether he was still breathing. Both of the injured were bleeding from every available orifice. Their beautiful brown fur, bright shades of the hue had been tainted with a red that turned them to a dark brown that bordered on black. Their bodies were so unbelievably cold to the touch that I jerked my hand from the corpse of the female. I couldn't do anything for her, the runt seemed to have reached the same conclusion as her body was doing its best to cover her brother from the elements.

'Sister', Lv. 1 Dire Wolf Cub #3

HP 0/15

'Brother', Lv. 1 Dire Wolf Cub #2

HP 1/15

'Twin', Lv. 1 Dire Wolf Cub #1

'?' - HP 14/14

She made loud whines the moment that I touched her brother, only stopping after I wrestled him out from under her and placed his body against my naked chest. My coat was in tatters despite my trousers and tunic partly having kitted themselves back together, forcing me to put on my cloak on top over everything else. Even if there was nothing I could do for their dead sibling, I'd grown desperate to not be left all alone out here and so I prayed to defrost the young wolf cub.

I had come to have a great amount of respect for Mother Nature despite being a city boy at heart. Testing my body's limits would only fast track my death at this point.

I say this, as I harvest what unburned fur I could from the corpse of a genetically modified grizzly bear that had taken years of steroids. The absurdity of my situation was something that I was well aware of.

One step at a time though.

Eventually warmth returned to my body, the shivering slowed to the point that I could take back control over my own chattering teeth. I wasn't in terribly good shape, but leaps and bounds farther than just standing before death's door. Having my hunger be fully sated, and safe in the knowledge that I wasn't going to starve anytime soon did wonders for my sanity.

Never thought that I'd be so glad to see the puff of hot air leave my lips. It was another piece of tangible proof that I was still alive and kicking.

The birds had returned, spotting a couple of ravens cawing amongst the branches of trees about a half mille passus away. Maybe a quarter if my head would finally stop spinning. A confident raven or two had decided to see what meat they could scavenge, putting a far bit of distance between us as they went to work.

While I had been splitting my time between wrapping my body with bandages, hissing through the pain. The runt of the trio had been playing with the crows as they got their fill. I was more than happy to leave them undisturbed as long as they alerted me to anything else monstrous that decided to barge into the clearing.

My chest had been like a cadaver, slices of flesh sticking out from where the bear's teeth had torn into my body. Now? Well I wasn't bleeding much so my torso in the large part made me look like a mummy. The skin would probably scar horribly but without any blood gushing forth it was mostly a matter of letting my skin reattach to the rest of my body

The tunic I wore had to be discarded though, pieces of it had got caught on my own injuries and had been drenched in blood. Frankly it was vile, and rubbed me in all the wrong ways. What was left underneath was red and raw with the thinnest layer of skin I had not thought possible.

I wasn't healing at an abnormal speed, but my flesh was hypersensitive to any and all sensations. This felt closer to the sudden surge that left me drained, soon after I had woken up and killed the bear the adrenaline faded. As it ebbed out of me an intense hunger sat side by side with my pain. So I ate till my stomach couldn't fit anymore of the cooked venison.

My hands ached from the heat, tearing large chunks of the predator's flank .

The bear's corpse was still warm, and as macabre as it was. The corpse of my slain foe was the best source of heat available given the circumstances. Definitely beat searching an entire forest for scraps of wood, helped that I didn't have to cook the meat by hand either. Even if only some of it was in the Chrysocoma zone for me to eat. Neither of the surviving pups had any complaints as I fed them some rawer pieces of ursine flesh. Doing well to stay far away from anything that had bloated black and dark purple veins running through them.

My best bet is that poison had weakened the bear enough for me to kill it, but I wasn't going to risk it and find out it was all around toxic. Straddling the line between saying my own hunger and maintaining some level of food safety. I wasn't sure if this would've been considered healthier than McDonalds, but in theory if it was simply venom I should be fine.

Actual poison or some other sort of toxin might be a different story.

Flesh from the reptile might've been less gamey, but I would never know for certain. I wasn't quite that desperate yet, and looking over at it now? Just being in the presence of the mutated lizard gave off the feeling of burning the air in which I had been breathing in. Of the two of them the bear was just getting colder with time as I worked on cutting a section of fur from its hide. From the corner of my vision the mutant black blood had formed dark pools around the body. There was no chance in hell that I was going to eat that shit no matter how hungry I was.

None of the melted snow seemed to be able to dilute or even mix with the other liquid. Aside from that trails of purple smoke left from the various wounds strewn across its body. Freaky shit like that wasn't worth meddling with. While I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, toxic acid blood or whatever is good enough of a sign from Apollo for me.

Even if there was much that I could salvage from my kill's themselves; Parts of the bear and reptile that the crows would peck at, but refuse to eat from. Looking closer at the, well, the closest word that I had for the creature was Abomination. Though that would be more fitting as a title for the fucked up demented version of a mythological Drake that I had put to death.

Standing as close as I could to the rapidly decaying corpse my eyes went back to the partially melted muzzle. At some point it had slipped off its grotesque face during the accelerated decomposition process, and left it mostly intact. The broken chains led back to a set of locks, and half of a key had been left embedded within one of the slots.

But something about it just seemed wrong, and while it might've just been my exhaustion. It resisted being removed, requiring that I put my entire arm into turning the key and removing it. Once in my hands, looking at both parts separately now, the key felt like it existed in a higher resolution than the rest of the world.

Received Chest Key x 1

Capable of being used to unlock any container before fading away.

"Fuck," My knees buckled under the fresh wave of nausea that washed over me after inadvertently peering too closely into the Veil. The runt of the litter licked my cheek while her unconscious brother shivered in my frail arms.

I had dropped it into the snow, the fake snow that felt more real than it had ever before. The deep wounds across my chest triggered a deliberating level of pain, my mind spilling its marbles so badly I was left wondering how I had even gotten this far. My connection to magic, mana, whatever you might've called it was gone as the extra sensory awareness I had with the wolves was slowly stitched back together.

For a long moment while I lay with my knees on dirt that didn't feel like it had been packed densely enough to hold my weight. Gods, God and his divine council, how I wished for the venison in my stomach to have been real too.

When I got back onto my two feet, my shivering was not brought on by the cold this time around. Instead hands acted desperately, fiddling around in my pack looking for my lighter and last cigarette. A relieved groan that bordered on sinful left my lips secure in the fact as the smoke, as unhealthy as it was, was far realer than I had experienced in weeks.

"Guh ack!"

It burned my nose, my mouth, my throat, and my lungs as my nerves finally settled with the pain welcomed over the pure agony across my torso. So beneficial was it. To the point that I could hold the strange key without it overwhelming me, storing it in my pack while the world appeared so much clearer to see.

There wasn't much reason to stay here, the abundant number of spikes along the demonic creatures hide. Well, apart from the white spikes along it's back appeared to medieval weaponry that had been lodged into its body. Not much was intact, even less was after it had been killed with acid blood eating away at the metal, but I did find a dagger.

Received Agarthium Dagger: Miséricorde x 1

Mt 4 Crit 15 Rng 1 Wt 6 Lv C A heavy dagger with a crossguard nearly identical to one made from steel, but from an alloy that failed to reflect light as easily as steel would.

Made for piercing blows rather than slicing like a traditional knife.

Wasn't much heavier than my switchblade, but then again my switch was closer to a multitool than a proper combat knife. 'This', the dagger that I had picked up was something else entirely by the make and model. Darker metal coated the blade that should've been made with steel, though that fact appeared consistent with the other ruined weapons.

For something that had been dipped in acidic flesh the blade was surprisingly instant, with a crossguard and handle that was decidedly standard practice. It wasn't plastic by the way, holding it up to the flame of my lighter failed to melt the binding. Upon closer inspection it was shaped with a thousand bound strings and hugged the blade's handle under an amber-like coating that was hard as granite.

There wasn't a good place to stow it away either, far too sharp that leaving it in my trousers might just stab my own leg. So I just left in my injured right hands, wasn't like doing much beyond keeping the cub close to my chest.

A crystal was embedded into the other half of the muzzle, I should rewind and explain to get this well recorded if I ever had to repeat what I had discovered here. The muzzle was a large contraption to keep the beast's maw such, and given its toxic nature the reason why was fairly obvious. While the mandible held the locks and most of the weight, the maxilla was longer with a clamp over its nose.

The blood had managed to break apart the steel to the point that some of the inner workings were revealed to the outside world. I wasn't very confident about seeing how my skin would react to the liquid that was boiling in large puddles despite the snow here to cool it down. With a twinkling gem on the edge of that pool of blood my steps were made carefully, the snow covering up deep holes in the dirt.

It was quite securely built into the muzzle, the gem would normally have been set in the middle between its two main eyes. Looking back up at the corpse, a hole had opened up on the bridge of its nose where no horn had ever protruded from. With some effort I was able to pry the gem free with my new dagger acting as an impromptu hammer.

Received Knowledge Gem, 'Abae' x 1

A mysterious gem that supports skill acquisition.

Doubles Class mastery experience and Skill experience gained for the weapon being wielded before adding bonus EXP for belonging to a class. Bane: 1, Neutral: 2, Boon: 3.

Part of me was scared of the damn thing, of a migraine or something worse being triggered. It was just my luck that nothing happened, how terrible that a lack of a reaction put me more on edge than an overreaction.

I wanted to leave right then and there, far away from the corpse of a creature that Someone had deemed worth the risk of meddling with.

Made sense in my head, but with my nerves settled and nicotine flowing my decisions took long enough to really weigh my options. Getting involved in the fight for my life had been stupid. Necessary in hindsight knowing how bloodthirsty both monsters could be, but it was a danger that I could've postponed. There were things just out of reach, the mana running through my veins proved that I wasn't bearing witness to the whole picture.

Releasing a trickle of energy to bleed into the crystal I saw just a tiny bit more, feelings and sensation similar to the my connection with the wolves had provided me with. I ignored my intuition telling me that the rest of the dead drake's eyes were watching me. The sounds of raven cawing behind me chipped away at my paranoia, but my impulsiveness won out in the end.

Worst case scenario I turned into some horrific abomination or something.

Neither warm nor cold it fed me a curated response, with the weather picking up again making sense of the flow of snow was greatly appreciated. Eventually the tired wolf pup in my arms woke back up, whimpering in my arms with a level of submission traveling over our connection.

Didn't need the crystal to make sense of that, though it helped me determine that it would be awhile before he'd be well enough to walk on his own again. Getting through this forest was my top priority with no possible signs of shelter close by, though that might explain why the capital had been built here.

My cigarette had long gone out, fighting valiantly against the cold for hours. Wouldn't have been able to bring it along for much longer anyway with the city walls in sight just a few mille passus away.

The city was incredibly easy to infiltrate, while the snow was a gigantic pain in the ass. It did a great job at hiding my presence even with a huge wall and tons of guards, most of them were more focused on warming their hands to look out for intruders. Checking my phone it was 6:32 pm, but felt like it was closer to 10. The sun was thoroughly drowned out by dark clouds that obscured vision further. You have to be insane to go through the effort.

Or desperate I suppose.

Admittedly, the sight once I passed through the gates was on to behold. Despite seeing a fair bit of the city from outside, the explorer in me wanted to take a look up close and personal. The architecture in every village, town or city that I'd passed through always happened to leave me scratching my head. Someone with a degree in historical architecture might had more insightful commentary.

There was a sense of familiarity to the city, Roman mixed with some architecture that looked reminiscent of the German confederacy. Closed medieval store fronts and personal houses displaying various levels of wealth within the city. Grand brick, mortar, and metal buildings littered the sides of the road I was traveling down before slowly being replaced by houses featuring wood in place of those materials. Some had visibly chosen to combine their storefronts into the homes themselves, the family's living in a section of the building a floor above the store itself.

'Hope the war is over by the time I get home,' Felt comforting to have a bit of the empire back, even if it was an ancient version of Rome. With all the boarded up windows and red markings over so many doors only raised my desire for the true safety Earth provides, 'That'd be nice.'

Course whatever nation this one capital belonged to was a long way away from the heights of Rome. Stuck in the dark ages of chronic inefficiency if the booming slave market was anything to go by. I really didn't want to still be around for that, front and center to the impending economic collapse that it would bring.

My back thudded against the brick wall behind me, a spike of pain rung through my body as I tried to push myself into the darkest corner of the alley. Some similarities were striking, a huge church standing tall could be seen even from my hiding place. From the looks of things there were no temples to the rest of their pantheon, I had been hoping for a place to pray and plead for mercy. No such luck there, I would have to ask for leniency once I was back home. While it was dead quiet the city didn't seem to be in terrible disrepair, few people walked about in this weather even while shielded from the worst of it.

Aside from other homeless folk, they were few and far between. I didn't really go out of my way to do a census as my focus was on discretion until the sun rose to warm the world up.

From my little abandoned cubby hole I could sneak a look at the people passing by, hints of oil and sweat from the odd patrol of soldiers. Sometimes one of them would be carrying the banner of an eagle with a piece of wheat and an arrow in the other. Felt like the distant relative of the eagle that adorned SPQR, what a bunch of copycats.

I mostly spent the rest of the night flipping pages through the frosty tome that I had been given to study the runic patterns. Using my lighter to burn my candle at both ends. While it was boring work, the contents were on the agenda of 'shit that needs doing'. Even if the specifics of warping cold for use still eluded me, it wasn't like I was under much pressure to learn it all in one night.

Being as it was my only source of literature to practice this world's native tongue, needless to say I had not made much progress. Learning the language is going to take ages, but it would go a long way in the effort of returning home. There were some similarities to base Latin, in the way that sentences were structured and the specific letters used. My intuition could be off as it has been years since I attended Sunday school, and while the crystalline gem was helping. It was a moderate improvement overall.

3(x2) Reason

My pack smacked against my shoulder blades as I readjusted the weight that had settled onto my back. Forcing myself back onto my two feet as the wind changed, feeling the dawn coming with the pup's senses being better than mine. It turned out to be the right choice as the patrols picked back up, with greater numbers of squads started to sweep through the alley. Like those I had pursued for some relative safety from the elements.

Entire neighborhoods were boarded up in some places, and I would know since I was actively hiding in the dank alley of one. But even if I was being a tad inaccurate. Guard detachments regularly patrolled the streets, I easily picked up the sounds of steel toe boots stomping through the snow, and while that alone wouldn't be enough to put me on edge. After witnessing a few parents not so discreetly drag their children back inside once the night grew dark enough, the guards on patrol duty grew more abrasive in turn.

Appending people who had failed to abide by a law that I knew not, or some sort of curfew perhaps? What an odd way of enforcing the rule of law. . .

It wasn't my business either way, with being in dire need of another smoke or a cup of coffee to keep me going after working through the night. So that's what I went looking for, the flow of traffic until people became so numerous that I had to carry both wolves to keep them hidden. The male was content to stay put, but the runt was a bundle of energy excited to see some many humans up close.

People laughed, and chatted with each other, but I could never catch anyone do so freely without looking over their shoulders soon after. Of all the sensations that could be flowing through the cold mid January air and sticking to my skin, the abundance of fear borne from stress had me on edge. Exploring turned out to be detrimental to the cubs, as the stress of so many people around us just made them increasingly more restless. That would eventually bleed over to my side and the situation would just snowball from there.

'Hah, snowball.'

A shared loaf of bread was enough to sate both of them while I did some exploring. Even though the price hurt me to hand over, I didn't have much room to haggle as the man didn't seem intent to budge at all.

-10 (x3) Gold coins

With my hood down, and a pair of generic gloves I was able to buy a few things in the midst of the morning rush. Most people we're too busy to investigate any further, turns out city folk in this era are more similar then they are different from mine. The more organized patrols with robed individuals in animal masks were new, more concerningly was how they would seem to pick random people from the crowd and take them away. I don't know where they went, what they did with them, and I wasn't all too eager to find out myself. Something told me that I had seen robes figures of that sort before. . .

Perhaps I wasn't being fair, ancient folk had to rely on soldiers or the guard for law and order. Things worked differently back then, that much was evident if this was anything to go by.

Officers were never this common of a sight even at the worst of times back home, you'd be hard pressed to match the same level of policing even using the excuse of city wide riot. By the time I was old enough to notice that things were changing. Many ordinary officers, sheriffs, and deputies had been replaced with SWAT or other anti terrorism units.

Questionings were done in broad daylight that lasted so long that they were seemingly conducted for no particular reason at all beyond disrupting normal operating hours. Forcing people to close up shop in the middle of fulfilling an order only for there to be no arrest sounded more like blatant harassment to me. Didn't help that they just repeated the same old song and dance for their neighbors regardless of what they discovered. Essentially killing a business's supply of customers for the next hour or however long it took for the masked bird fellows to be satisfied with their investigation. In turn many merchants were less inclined to call out their wares, and make even less in fear of some surprise inspection. Or maybe it was plain old demoralization.

I was suddenly reminded of why I hated traveling, and that after the Republic's second capital had been officially declared, martial law much like this had followed suit. You'd have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to the anxiety that tainted the general atmosphere wherever people congregated. I choose to believe in not giving them the opportunity to search me with some half assed excuse, and that it 'wasn't my problem to solve'.

Of course not everyone was lucky enough to live in a part of the republic as stable as mine, but our cruelty was far more predictable, and by extension. Deserved. I only hoped that there would BE a republic to return back to when the time finally came.

I got tired of wandering after a while, their grand cathedral wasn't worth admiring when even the birds seemed to be waiting with baited breath for the preverbal bomb to go off. Karma struck nearly instantaneously as it seemed that the Fates were conspiring against me as I spotted a familiar looking redhead seated in a stall of her very own. Bored out of her mind with her chin resting against her palm despite having dozens of customers within little more than arm's reach if she only tried.

"Fucking fantastic," I muttered at the woman noticing me, excitedly gesturing me over to her tent like she was blind to the attention that such an action would surely garner. Indiscriminate of whether the early bird shoppers were malicious, benevolent, or benign in nature. My outward demeanor must've been grim as I approached to put distance between me and the patrolling guards on duty, "You again."

Her face had ranked amongst the few that I had been hoping to never run into again, now having said that. A strange, albeit harmless young woman merely making me uncomfortable was leagues better than being accosted by the local secret police. The novelty of such an experience is lost practically the instant that threats start being rolled out.

'Oh, she also happens to be the only person that I've encountered thus far to speak modern Latin. So in the end my personal feelings had to be pushed aside if I truly wished to find my way back.'

"Oh? I didn't think we'd meet again so soon," She perked up at my voice, her hunched over posture straightened out while she pushed a hand against her chest to greet me. Had I not met her before she would've looked right at home bartering with the local just like any other merchant. She reintroduced in an attempt to lighten the mood that I had darkened, "Anna, world renowned merchant of all goods and services. Most beautifulest woman you've ever laid your eyes upon, I assume you've more for more of what you've been oh so dearly missing?"

The latter half of her words held the lightest of flirtatious tint to them while her hands fiddled with a couple of gold plated coins. A nervous tick maybe?

"Sure," A dry snort left my lips at the merchant's flowery language, suddenly on edge considering what transpired right after we had crossed paths. My eyes narrowed on our surroundings as the crowd around us continued on without giving either of us a second look, "What do you want?"

My question didn't seem to be exactly what it was that she had been expecting, the coins filing through her fingers halted. Only starting back up again as she digested my query.

"What do I want?" At my suspicious tone, a look of confusion spread across her face as under her breath she seemed to mutter 'stupid little boy' as if I would not hear her say it. To the pups it meant nothing, but through our connection the unfamiliar sounds were made legible. I refrained from reacting as I hoped to keep her talking and hopefully revealed what I wanted to know without having to pay for it, "Darling, you're the one that stepped into my domain. Not the other way around."

". . .Your domain?"

"You really aren't from around here are you?" She asked herself the question, looking at something off into the distance beyond the hustle and bustle that surrounded us. With a snap of her fingers the noises and images of people around us were muffled, my breathing became labored as my thoughts raced. In an effort to ease what must have been my visible growing anxiety. She extended her right hand out to me with an easy going smile that shone in her bright raspberry eyes, "How about we start over again, Anna, you?"

". . ." Staring at her offered hand blankly, my gaze conveyed hidden meaning as it flickered it and the mass under my cloak that was taken up the use of both of my arms. Her eyebrows shot straight up when I opened my cloak a bit. Revealing the two wolf cubs that I had as contraband, "You're not some sort of fae are you?"

"I don't curse people if that's what you're worried about-," Anna squealed, waving her hands over with a look of adoration written across her face upon catching sight of the pair of puppies that I'd been carrying. Taking the sleepy male into her arms while she enthusiastically shook my freed hand as her voice sped up, "Such things are frowned upon and tend to be bad for my business model. Aeren't that right, arentchu the cutest little thing!"

Weaponized adorableness, it's never failed me before. It's how I got my last girlfriend after all, though it wasn't enough to save me once it got me that far. Hopefully it would be enough in this case, my life kinda depended on it.

"Alcides," My caution hadn't abated one bit, especially when at the mention of my name she seemed to flinch before returning to pet my 'brother'. I let my name stew in the air for a moment before I asked the question resting at the tip of my tongue, "If you didn't go out of your way to meet me, why are you here of all places?"

"Any place of commerce really beckons me, all the bartering and exchanging of goods helps me focus. This market for example," With the change of topic the weight that had fallen her shoulders fell away as she rambled on. Using a spare bag full of coins she entertained the puppy with their soft metallic clacking as she spoke to me, "Has such an energy that I couldn't help but try my hand at making a killing. Shame that I don't have anything in stock that anyone wants to buy, can't help it after all with [Embarr] being in dire straits at all. They still serve as great company for one such as I, but I never expected to see you again."

"The Holy Fates operate in the strangest of ways of which we can hardly hope tp. . . [Amburr]?"

"Hehe," Her laughter was as crisp as the coins she had stopped jingling to catch her breath, letting it go to place that same hand over her chest. Moving over to a shelf with what seemed to hold hundreds of unidentifiable trinkets, I could only ever hope to name a dozen, but little else. After answering my question plainly she asked her own to play along with my game with a knowing grin, "It's pronounced [Embarr] for your information, and it's the capital of the [Adrestian] Empire of which we are located. Holy Fates?"

Finding out why this '[Adrestrian] Empire' had gone to hell in a handbasket was intriguing, but ultimately didn't change my goals to depart from this plane of existence.

"A trinity of divine entities that serve another trinity," Anna hummed at the information I traded for her own, her delicate fingers picking up and putting down various bottles while searching for something in particular. Releasing a pleased 'ah hah!' at the same time that I inquired about her capabilities, "Can you do more than that little trick of yours?"

"I am no one trick pony darling," Anna queried for extra information with an upturned smile, gently dropping the injured male wolf onto the floor after pouring some starry liquid down his throat. The cub whined as it brushed his head against her leg while the connection between us slowly grew stronger over time. With the cub standing straighter the secret seller clicked her tongue in silent approval before turning to address me, "You have a request I imagine, and if that is the case then I have a form of payment in mind."

"Only if you can take me somewhere that you have likely never ventured before," A conflicted knot had developed within my gut as I saw her play with my brother's two frontal paws. Shoving the feeling aside for a moment I corrected her on the exact nature of my request, "I'd hope you'd be fine with me not knowing how exactly to get there, but I doubt it's going to be as easy as I had hoped if I'm truly such a strange sight."

"Hhah, that is not how I would've phrased it. But you would be correct in that assumption my darling Monk," The merchant shot me an apologetic look as she scratched the back of puppy's ears. It was greatly enjoyed if the rapid kicking of his feet against the open air was anything to go by, and for the first time since I had met her. The look on her face had become sour with turmoil, "I don't deal in living cargo anymore, such business proves to be more a hassle than it's worth. Here's a free lesson in gambling for you, don't bet ever more than you can afford to lose. No matter how enticing the potential gains might be."

"Sounds like there's a story behind that."

"I've got the scars to prove it," The redhead replied darkly as she busied herself with looking for something else she deemed too important to put off. After checking the third bag and tying it closed she burst out laughing. Despite holding a hand up to her mouth I could hear the uncontrollable giggling that followed whatever had clicked inside of her head. Shrugging aside her ponytail to expose a long stretch of her exposed pale neck she winked at my continuous staring, "If you show me yours, I'll show you mine~"

"Really?"

"Oh come on, you have to admit. That was pretty good."

"Unfortunately even if I were to make an exception for you my handsome little helper," Anna's good mood faded as she finally found what it was she was looking for, opening a small bag with [Ambrosia] inscribed on it. Delivering the news that I had been expecting but expecting to receive given my luck, "Crossing into another realm is beyond my abilities, I wouldn't have been able to even if I were whole. My apologies for wasting your time, and for testing your patience, kind sir."

"Drop the sir," The distraction was a welcome change of pace. Keeping my thoughts irate by her teasing tone rather than despairing at the contents of which had been my focus, "I'm not nearly old enough for that yet."

If only it worked, unfortunately it was a trick that I knew well since I had often used it myself. I'd have to give her points for trying, 'At least you cared enough to try to lie to me, it's more than I can say of others.'

"Can it be done," Compartmentalizing my disappointment I settled on the more reasonable path toward returning to my homeland, "That is. Leave this place and return from whence I originally came?"

"I believe so. [Sothis] definitely knows, but you would have better luck turning a base metal into a noble one than be granted an audience with that goddess. In your case though," While explaining the ginger saleswoman went through the options in her head while flipping the corresponding finger so I could follow along. Looking over at her disheveled shelf she came to a possible solution to my predicament, "There might be a book on the subject amongst my wares-"

[Player Phase]

CHING!

Upon dropping my entire coin purse onto her desk her eyes dilated, narrowed, and snapped up to meet my gaze. Jumping without leaving the ground, dropping the leather bag as her fingers never let go of the string, and sensations from the market around briefly flickered back into existence.

Through 3 different pairs of eyes the visions of what they saw Anna do in the moment that passed were all different. As I sucked in a breath to keep myself from buckling under the shifting pressure everything returned to normal once my eyes blinked.

"I'm not taking all of your money," Anna leveled an equally amused and exasperated look as she gently pushed the bag fat with gold coins back an inch towards me. The secret seller seemed larger than life. Speaking with perfect words that promised my heart's every desire and more in fewer words then we're actually spoken. With every fiber of my being possible I listened to what she had to say, "Most people do not know about the Veil or that other realms even exist. Let alone that piercing it is possible or traveling between realms either. So don't worry your pretty little head about it, once I've got what you're looking for we can sit down and negotiate pricing."

"Time is not something that I am not rich in Anna," The desperation in my choice of words aligned themselves perfectly with the inflection I employed. I was completely enraptured with how her form and function were similar working in concert, part of me wondered if I was now under her spell. Another part argued that I had been sober for far too long, "Waiting patiently is an expensive luxury."

[Enemy Phase]

Our game had changed, the stakes had been raised and I had been incredibly lucky to notice it. Though I was unable to tear my eyes away from Anna's sinful form, who's horizontal green sash had dipped low enough to perceive a mouthwatering amount of cleavage. From the corner of my eye, a gleaming scale just like the ones I had lost held two sides in equal balance. The weight was increasing across both sides as the tiny inaudible clicks back and forth kept changing which side overvalued the other.

"Mayhaps you will have use for second seal?" Anna suggested this course of action, sounding reasonable and perfectly logical to my ears as her heels clicked against the concrete. Throwing an arm around my shoulder she placed her weight against mine to hold herself up as she made her appeal, "I see that the first has become attuned to you, and it would be much better use of your meager funds."

The metal badge inscribed with the depiction of a buried seed came to mind, clearer than my actual memory of the time I had spent with Anna. Almost like the natural degeneration of my recollections of it were being unblurred in real time.

Mostly writing it off as unimportant. Magical in nature sure, but the changes it had brought, and those that I could perceive had been minimal in the grand scheme of things. The trinket was always with me since I had been coerced into buying the fucking thing. I had taken it off briefly to bathe in peace only to realize that I had forgotten it and had it reappear pinned to my tunic or shirt when I patted my chest. With the presence of mind that I should've paid it more attention in the past, both it and the gem I recently acquired shared discernible similarities.

Disregarding the intricate details behind how either of them functioned, both served as a guiding influence to my actions. The main difference was that the gem acted as a focus, some variation of the orb magicians would utilize for scrying or divination. While the broach was a magic mirror, putting ideas into my head as how to cast magic easier.

'How long have I been following the path that she has laid out for me? Is this Thing the reason why my cloak felt as natural as one would wear a second skin? Does any of this even matter if it's helped me get this far?'

"I'd rather not be in your debt," Slapping myself with the full benefit of hindsight in mind I fumbled around for something to buy time. Flashing backwards through every moment that I had spent with the woman this morning. My mind lingered on the mysterious healing liquid that rapidly sped up the male wolf cub's recovery, "You've helped me so already, it would be rude not to repay you for that which you have done on my behalf."

There was an unspoken accusation in my counter offer, a thing that contrasted so incredible as Anna's other hand traveled through my unkempt hair. The tips of my ears were burning to the point that I thought that her breathing into my left side was enough to melt the flesh clean off from how red I must've looked. The mere idea was so tantalizingly orgasmic while she rested her chin against the crook of my neck, idly playing with a strand of my hair.

"Oh come oooooon~," The depths of my comprehension for the popular, oft bastardized, and ancient phrase 'sex sells' simply grew with time. Somewhere between then and now my modern gloves had disappeared, appearing as if they had never existed as if it weren't for my contradictory memories. Under normal circumstances I would've never allowed my hand to dip so low or clench bare skin so tightly, "You look like you are in so much more of a dire need of a potion, and a thorough massage to release all of these knots."

[Player Phase]

Sand was still trickling, but the scale hadn't moved a centimeter from perfect equilibrium in what felt like in an age. From the shadows of light, and the echoes of bartering we had continued uninterrupted as the market's eye to its economic storm. I knew that I couldn't have spent any more than seven minutes like this with her.

Sand had been dripping onto one side of the silver scale, with the bottom half of an hourglass being continuously filled with golden dust. Gleaming brighter in the lamp light of Anna's tent than the outside world's sunlight that spilled through the cracks. Never spilling out of the spout that had appeared with the absence of its top other half.

Sand covered it, and opposite the hourglass lay my switchback buried under dark purple liquid that filled half of the scale's other pan. Tiny bubbles periodically sprouted from the small pool before popping when drifted closer enough to graze the blade's edge. Each time the two connected, my knife almost seemed to secrete more of the mysterious fluid as if it were an organ or pump.

It meant something, this was something I knew to be true in the very depths of my soul, but what exactly it was remained out of reach. Fishing for answers without so much as being able to use my hands to grasp them with. Startling prey as I repeatedly dunked my head under the water foolishly hoping that my eyes could find what my hands weren't able to. An abyss so deep and devoid of light that even the meager proposition that a solitary spec could be made a single degree brighter was tantamount to heresy. Unable to hold my breath long enough for the water to settle as if it had never been disturbed in the first place. To clench it hard enough that my strength alone could drag it ashore, and awash with light so that the near infinite amount of lies might finally starve.

"I'll bite," Her wandering hand stopped moving when I increased pressure with my hands, my splintered right arm ruining the blissful fantasy of it all. She gripped a lover lost at sea, sore from fighting the worst of storms to return to port. Working more like a fleshly clamp than my unharmed hand's twin, pain starved out the desire that Anna had been fanning the flames off. With no interest in pursuing her wares any further with the stiffness in my malhealed musculature provided a compromise amongst the idyllic haze, "After paying my tab."

"Uggh, you stupidly stubborn man. Fine!"

-147 Gold Coins

"Don't you dare even think about arguing with me over the discount," With a huff she stopped trying her best to fuse with me to swing around to face the desk with the forgotten bag of coins. Spilling it open and only stopping the flow of clinking coins against hardwood once a certain amount had been reached. The self satisfied expression she bore told me everything that I needed to know, "You have done me a great service by giving my freedom back to me, and I elect to pay that back in installments if you don't mind."

"Remind me to never play poker against you."

"I won't need to as long as you heed my advice, and you'd be wise to do so."

6(x2) Class Mastery, 6(x2) Authority

"So what's next," Breaking the jovial atmosphere, my question brought us back down to reality. Anna's ethereal form remained just as it had before our little 'spat' began, the strange power she had over me creeping back in the pain faded. Brushing off my comment as she started to collect a seemingly random assortment of goods, "Do I sell my soul to you now?"

"Down boy, that's not till the third date, besides. You've yet to buy me dinner yet," Anna clapped back with another one of her zingers, once again trying to combat my pessimism with innuendo. Pausing for a moment to retrieve another potion she had originally disregarded once I finished speaking, "Kidding, geez! Lighten up a bit hun, you're going to start bleeding out of your ears at this rate."

'And who's fault would that be?'

"Thought we were past that phase since we've already had our first fight."

"PFFFT-"

Anna had stopped before the other side of the desk to deposit everything she had picked out, dropping it onto the table with a bit more force than necessary. For a moment I thought that I had almost broken her without having to pluck a single string. Even though I hadn't considered my quip to be funny enough to warrant such a reason the seasoned merchant clearly thought differently. Her whole body shaking with laughter, breathing labored as she repeatedly tried to catch herself several times with little success. Allowing the initial shock to roll past as a few tears streamed down her face at the exact same moment in time.

"Chicken meet Egg, no?"

Laughing at her own little joke she steadied herself, and straightened her posture as she placed a hand over the box containing all that she had gathered. It was a damn shame to've been cut so short, as it'd been doing the Lord's work to her chest while Anna was in her state of partial undress. Alas, such things weren't meant to last.

'Good god man, get a fucking grip. Now is not the time.'

"Would you mind dimming your aura or whatever is call 'that'," My working hand went straight to the bridge of my nose to rub because of my worsening headache while I kept both of my eyes shut. Her audible amusement at my suffering was the most beautiful sound that my ears had ever registered. Steel entered my tone at the lack of a clear reply, "Anna."

"What you're experiencing is a trade off slipped into the fine print. You gain nothing if you wager nothing in return," Her voice took on a more apologetic tone even as an outline of her figure was projected through my eyelids. With overlapping senses her visage had practically been burned into my retina, "Without a downpayment us crossing paths would never have been possible in the first. I only ask that you consider what I have to offer."

'You make it sound so easy, and I'm not sure how I should feel about that.'

"Perhaps next time we should cut the pleasantries short if this is what our meetings are going to turn into," Groaning into the palm of my hand, I tried to focus on my breathing, and block out the cubs that were passing along. The both of them attempted to pounce on her with begging growls. Ultimately I knew they had failed to knock a single hair out of place without needing to look with my own eyes, "I don't see how I'm supposed to do that if all of this is only getting worse with time."

"Just follow my lead and be amazed at how fast I can work my magic when properly motivated," Anna suddenly leaned forward across the desk as if it was never physically there in the first. Her arms outstretched as my left was led to pick something out of her box of junk, my fingers brushing against. . . something-

[Anna's Shop]

---

Ring of Gyges - Limited: 1 - Cost: 10,000 G Solomon's Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 10,000 G

Goddess Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 9,000 G Prayer Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 6,000 G

Halvor's Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 6,000 G Marching Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 5,000 G

Mudarra's Ring - Limited: 1 - Cost: 5,000 G Seraph Robe - Limited: 1 - Cost: 5,000 G

Sacred Galewind Shoes - Limited: 0 - Cost: 4,000 G Hexlock Shield - Limited: 3 - Cost: 3,750 G

Elixir - Limited: 3 - Cost: 3,000 G Silver Shield - Limited: 3 - Cost: 2,250 G

Energy Drop - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G Spirit Dust - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G

Secret Book - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G Speedwing - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G

Goddess Icon - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G Giant Shell - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G

Two-Headed Talisman - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G Pair of Black Pearls - Limited: 1 - Cost: 2,000 G

Master Seal - Limited: 1 - Cost: 800 G Concoction - Limited: 3 - Cost: 600 G

Advanced Seal - Limited: 1 - Cost: 400 G Vulnerary - Limited: 3 - Cost: 300 G

Blessed Tome: Soothe - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G Lightning Tome: Sparks - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G

Wind Tome: Clear Cut - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G Fire Tome: Blaze - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G

Ice Tome: Frostbite - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G Ritual Tome: Blaze - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G

Cursed Tome: Miasma Δ - Limited: 1 - Cost: 300 G Intermediate Seal - Limited: 1 - Cost: 200 G

Tincture - Limited: 3 - Cost: 150 G Beginner Seal - Limited: 0 - Cost: 100 G

---

It functioned just like an auction would.

The rush of dozens of items passed through my hand, dropping all at the same time before I took anything out of the box. Instantly aware even before I had opened up my eyes again by the familiar scent of Rosemary as Anna was by my side in an instant to offer her support.

-300 Gold Coins

Received Vulnerary x 1

A medicinal solution made up of magical herbs left to dissolve in pure water, can be used three times for healing minor wounds.

"-place to start," "-potion of healing?" "Magic isn't just confined to spell books-" "-recommended dosage?" "-small fee, of course."

-200 Gold Coins

Received Intermediate Seal x 1

An enchanted medallion that allows the unit to be promoted into an intermediate class once they reach level ten.

"Normally I wouldn't-" "-do to me?!" "-would've been at a disadvantage without it," "The choice should've-" "I'm sorry."

-300 Gold Coins

Received Blessed Tome: Soothe x 1

A spell designed to treat inflammation, and reverse damage dealt to an ally. The healing output delivered is equal to the caster's level of magic.

"Let's not argue-" "-might I interest you-" "-why would anyone-" "-far more versatile, but-" "-call it an investment."

She had a sheepish grin on her face while the ghosts of over a dozen conversions within what must've been a blink hit me all at one moment. The bag of coins that brought with me into her tent had greatly diminished since then. Its weight was a mere fraction of what it had been when Anna handed it along with one of the squirming cubs to me.

Whatever any of that all meant, my confused mind was busy sorting through the sudden influx of sensory data. Settling on the three items that I had deemed most important even with the mixed feelings that came with them. Living long enough to see tomorrow, and hopefully build upon the plans that I had set in motion today took priority over anything else.

My condition must've been quite concerning to warrant the young woman to purse her lips as she looked me over. Placing a hand against my head checking my temperature, but as she pulled away I caught sight of my sweat stuck to the underside of her palm. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have given it a second glance if it weren't for the shade of red smeared onto her perfect skin. A moment later my lust addled brain sped up fast enough to register the liquid as my blood before Anna was able to pull her hand out of view, 'Shit.'

"I suppose this marks as good of a time as ever to part ways," Swinging my gaze over her bloody fingers I settled on Anna's face as my eardrums finally popped. Clicking her tongue with irritation. The tiny amount of mirth that had been ever present shining in her eyes faded for the first time since we had met, "I know it is not my place to order you around good sir, but try not to get into too much trouble will you? Come back intact, noble wolf."

"Next time we cross paths," I could feel the immense flow of magic flowing through the air, the hairs all across my body began to stand on end. Half way through my reply I would've bet that she'd cut me off for my own good, but the amused look she bore proved me wrong. She simply shook her head as she wrapped up the items that I had 'bought' into a bag to take with me, "I will be no worse for wear, you can call it my sales pitch."

Lightly pushing me away she brought a hand to cover her mouth while the other clung to her own side, "Then don't keep a girl waiting~"

When I blinked it was like she was never even there, the area of her open stall occupied by an older man trying to sell his spices. I felt like a fool just standing there, so with my tail tucked between my legs I followed the flow of traffic.

My vertigo hadn't quite vanished as quickly as Anna had, but I was left with the task of stumbling out of here without drawing too many eyes. Someone would have mistaken me for a drunk man, bloated with wasted liquid courage, and carried by trembling legs until I could reach out with my good hand to use the wall as a crutch.

It was a flake of snow that brought me out of my resignation, my instincts waking back up to kick my autopilot on. Mustering the strength to drag myself under some random balcony as the snowstorm picked back up. Reflexively pulling my hood further down that it trapped the hot breaths that the pups we're blowing into my face.

At least they weren't trying to stuff their tongues down my throat anymore. I had long since gotten tired of that game with how pushy they were about it.

This hasn't been my brightest idea, but. . .

I may have decided to tail one of the local guard patrols back to wherever they were stationed, justifying my strange behavior to myself with the promise of vital knowledge. Sticking my nose into other people's business was an important step in ensuring that they wouldn't interrupt me while I was in the middle of mine.

My homeland would've made such a task far harder, tailing someone turned out to be significantly easier since their footsteps left fresh imprints of their boots in the snow. It happened to be a bit exciting to play detective, but with my connection that feeling had to be shoved down before the cubs were thrown into a frenzy. Sparing the energy to reign them in was just getting harder to manage as the night went on.

Gauging those that I'd probably end up on the other side of seemed wise in the short term while a more long term plan formed in my head. I'd have to make my move eventually, I couldn't just wait around doing nothing while Anna did all the heavy lifting. My ignorant ass, as much as I hated to stew in the past, all pointed to it being the exact reason that had gotten me into this mess. All my fuckups we're finally catching up to me, and by god do the scars left behind ache in this weather.

Outside of the medieval equivalent of a barracks the soldiers had self separated into two groups, one of ordinary guards with gambeson and the like. Leaning on pikes or planting their sheathed blades into the snow, milling about as officers took note of the criminals they had collected. While the other featured priests bearing robes of red, black, and gold talking with cloaked plague doctors. Actually from where I was I couldn't see any skin from plague doctors, even the priests and nuns had their heads exposed at the very least.

My conclusion ended up being that engaging a group of them was an idea that only promised pain, and facing a direct confrontation fell to nearly the bottom of my tier list. Though if I had to rank all the fights that I'd been involved in my life it would have to go; Barfights Attempted forest linching Monster snacification.

While pondering my options I recalled the multiple conversations that I shared with Anna over the magical items in her possession capable of enhancing the ones state of being. It had been enlightening to ponder the implications of what they were or how they were capable of such drastic alterations. Something about minute changes to ensure stability in the host for continued use. During one such chat she had briefly implied that I already had one of them in my. . . Inventory? Anna's terminology had been strange.

My mind traveled to the objects that I had picked up from that bear's fight with the Abomination, though nothing that I had picked perfectly fit that description. I hadn't become fused to anything, well there is the weird connection with the wolves, but our time had run out before I'd been able to inquire. Off the top of my head.

It was the medallion I had that flipped around in my hand, a seal made to 'enhance an individual's potential growth'. One foreign object altering my mind was one too many by my count, so when a patrol stomped through the snow my heart rate jumped up to my throat. The seal was stuffed within one of my jacket's spare pockets, gone but not forgotten as I continued tailing my chosen squad.

Turning the corner after a street and half between us, the sight that came up stunned me to my core. My attention switched from keeping track of the merry band of idiots. To the eminence structure blocking out the setting sun directly ahead of me, 'Where the fuck did these idiots hide a fucking castle?!'

'Eeeh,' The nerdy academic in me rammed the rod of Useless TriviaTM up my ass, my eyes burned the megastructure's outline into my brain. Demanding a correction to be issued from the hungover frat boy that was currently on shift, 'How did they hide the goddamn castlemansion?'

All my Disney jokes went out the same way as Old Yeller, but to be fair, none of them would've warranted more than a polite chuckle at best to begin with.

Calling the thing a castle would be the understatement of the damn century, while in some sense it did feature great stone walls and towers. Gigantic even from the vast distance I stood away from the building, stained glass and chiseled marble covered the structure's pillars. A veritable royal palace straight out of the history books, resembling a cathedral more than the white house in all honesty. It seemed thematic for the monotheistic city with the grand church that had played the role of host people's everyday commercial needs.

The city had been built in the midst of a valley, away from the rolling hills that I had taken to arrive, and yet close enough to siphon water from the nearby mountain range carried by an adjacent river. Paris always seemed overrated to me, but a part of me wished that I'd visited if only to see if it lived up to the hype. This city had clearly been beautiful once, and it was depressing to see such a place degrade like this a second time due to what was likely poor management.

Being closer to royalty, I assumed that the neighborhood here was appropriately just as rich or notable at least. Very nice place, lots of mahogany and granite, with smoother paved roads that crunched less under my feet. Even they hadn't been left entirely unscathed by whatever affliction was stifling the land, and its people. The pile of burnt black bodies stacked three layers high in the middle of the road stood out no matter how much snow fell from the sky to obscure it.

Guard's occasionally changed shifts off in the edge of my vision following regular intervals as I hung back in the shadows looking for a way in. Shaking my head, I swept a hand across my cognitive desk hosting my chain of thought to be free from idle distractions for the task at hand.

Eventually I got bored looking at a bunch of dudes shivering out in the fucking cold, and for lack of better words-

Look, palaces are expensive right? Only very rich people own those sorts of buildings in this time period. Rich people like to collect shit don't they? Things like expensive, exotic, and rare books about subjects no one else would be interested in.

With that line of logic, a plan was quickly formed and put into motion. Where plan A, became plan B in the case that it turned out that Anna had found nothing relevant to my predicament.

Get inside, look for anything with iconography that depicts a portal or outworldly realm, bring what I find back to Anna so she could decipher them for me and return it. Rinse and repeat until its library had been picked clean. From there I could work down to everyone else that might have any information that could be useful if that turned out to be insufficient. I would just have to remain undetected.

Whether the local royalty was of the benevolent or tyrannical sort ended up being irrelevant to my course of action. If good still ruled it was clearly being hampered, but malice just meant that I had to maintain secrecy. The plan remained unchanged by either possibility, 'Alright, stop being a fucking pussy. We're wasting precious daylight just sitting here.'

Even with my limited vantage point, with the twilight sun dying down it cast a shadow on my approach. Four empty flag poles littered the tips of the palace, utterly absent of any eagles that I'd been expecting from the soldiers patrolling the streets. Probably explained why I never noticed this place before, it was incredibly non distinct despite how important it clearly was in relation to how the city was structured around it.

A distraction seemed appropriate considering the twenty or so men standing guard before the palace's main gates. Something close enough that they were the only ones available to respond, and severe enough that it warranted all of them to leave this posting undefended. I needed something that would require much effort to set up on such short notice, but enough of a threat to be taken seriously.

The snowstorm had been the perfect cover, but I needed something more explosive when what I had at hand was stifling. Conveniently it was the exact moment that my hands brushed over the pair of tomes that I had acquired over the course of my journey. In particular, on the older ice tome that I'd been having issues wielding with in the past.

Fire, or 'Blaze' as Anna had referred to the particular magical technique that I had been employing; Used the same chemical formula as its base as I had originally suspected. While the physics and energy conversion ratios raised some eyebrows, my subconscious had apparently been handling most of the heavy lifting.

Magic was a process that relied on domino effects, and while my idea was likely a perversion of this world's traditional view on spellcrafting. It made a certain amount of sense, my confidence only growing as the book vibrated violently while I pumped mana through the runes.

Shaking off idle thoughts I sucked in a breath, drowning out the feeling of falling snow with the rhythmic tempo coming from my heart's doppelganger. A numb feeling spread out from the palm of my hands, crackling static causing my hair to stand on end as I held onto the spell for far longer than I probably should've.

Sensing, feeling, and tasting the copper in the air as I pulled diagrams straight from the page. Ripped from its bindings to rearrange the patterns in a way that the abundant cold around me would act as a core ingredient instead of the end result. It wasn't my best work I'll admit, but the glowing rings of white lights flickering around made a rush job the only real option at hand. My control over carving new lines of magical code slipped as the voices of far off soldiers began to sound closer and louder.

I had to dump the thing before it froze my fingers off, without my gloves I was starting to lose feeling in the appendages in question. With a garbage bin right in the alley beside me that hid me from view, my mind didn't put up much of a fight as I dropped it amongst the trash.

Leading people away from presuming the existence of a saboteur was all that I could reasonably hope for. In hindsight the tome's probably been trashed for nothing since ice isn't nearly of a reactive element as Urania, and lacks the necessary potential energy that those atoms hav-

FvFvFvfVfVfVfVfsssssssssSSS. . . BOOM!

- 17 HP 13/30

.

. .

. . .

. .

.

7 Reason [3 (x2) 1, 2 (x2) Class Mastery

I had expected a bright flash, but without it the sudden wave of heat and pressure had caught me off guard. The buildings closest to where I had dumped my IED had shattered into pieces, sending countless shards of concrete, and glass into the air at high speed.

'New Rule: No more magical nukes,' Warm blood rolling down my neck from a wound located at the very center of the back of my head. My thoughts sluggish as I came to, dropping the pups from where I had reflexively pressed them against my chest to keep them safe from harm. The blast had been forced down the path of least resistance, that being the main street leading up to the palace. Narrower alleys like the one that I had fled deeper into had instead simply collapsed as the nearby buildings siphoned off some of the energy that the pressure wave sent out.

The pups had been the ones to walk me up, climbing out from under me once it was safe to do so. One of them yelped when a tile from a damaged roof almost caved in his skull. Groaning, I forced myself back onto my feet, and grabbed the troublesome canine by the scruff of its neck to bring the snippy male back in line.

Even the storm swirling above me had reacted to what I'd done. Occasionally issuing bright flashes of light as the storm clouds grew darker, and fiercer if the wind trying to blow off my hood was anything to go by.

ING ING ING ING ING ING ING RING!

The ringing of bells freed me from my stupor, the loud chimes cut cleanly through the falling snow gradually turning into hail and thunder. It had sent blood pumping through my veins, better than a shot of espresso would've at this rate. Slurred words full of horror at what I'd done oozed forth in time with pangs of pain coming from my skull, "God, what the fuck have I done?"

Using the word 'carnage' would've been generous to what I found upon approaching the main gate.

Compared to the soldiers standing in front of the mansion's front entrance I had practically gotten away with a scraped knee. A few of the unfortunate bastards who had the presence of mind, and initiative to investigate the bright fluctuating light had been torn to shreds. Going through the aftermath, the furthest one to venture from the group had experienced the worst of it. Only his man's lower half remained, but at least his death had come quickly. It had certainly been effective, but fuck me if it wasn's a hard thing to witness as I walked past it. The damage had far exceeded any expectations that I had held.

I barked out a reprimand after one of the wolves had gotten too close to their bodies for my liking. My morals were in an absolute state, but allowing their corpses to be disturbed was a step too far. Even as I was in no condition, mental, physical, or emotional to provide them with proper burials. Didn't trust myself to not fuck up burning their bodies as the snow storm started to pelt us with small bits of hail.

While the front door was locked it featured more than a dozen fragile glass windows, and hoped if anyone had heard the shattering of glass that they would ignore it in favor of the bomb I had set off. Aside from the pattering from stray water spilling off of my soaked frame, the dead silence that followed my entry was maddening.

The place turned out to be a god damn maze, and had I known beforehand, this would've remained a pipe dream of an idea. Most of the rooms inside were shrouded in darkness, and mch of the furniture covered in a thin, but discernible layer of dust. While I did find the library it seemed that it had already been emptied by some other third party, likely the same people responsible having so many stand guard over this place.

I would've thought that this place had been entirely abandoned if it weren't for all the oil lamps that lined the halls being at various levels of capacity. Meandering my way through, I pushed my ear against various doors before opening them, and finding nothing but more empty rooms.

"[These useless fucking humans," A light but loud voice boomed off to the side, echoing through the hallway so much that my mixed hearing detected their footsteps long before they turned the corner. Ducking into a spare room just as they got close enough for my eyes to pick up the light of a handheld lamp reflected off the wooden floorboards, "We'd be [better] off [throwing half] of the [guard into] the [cells, and [you'd hardly notice] the dip in [intelligence]."

"[Until] we [replicate] the [Hrym experiment's results] we [need them alive] and to be [cooperative," There were two of them, a pair of plague doctors belonging to opposing sexes without their masks, and too far for me to make out more than just their silhouettes through a small crack in the door. I didn't feel good about testing my luck as their conversation continued to raise hair along my back, "One of the [idiots probably just doused] the [corpses] of the [infected with] too [much fuel before setting them aflame]."

"[Let's just] get [this over with," Man huffed out some complaint before placing the mask over his face. His voice reverberated through the air as it was covered by the garment, "I [still have] to [redo] all the [documentation that Belphegor failed] to [properly record]."

Once I felt like they had traveled far enough that I wouldn't get jumped if I left my piece of cover, my next move was to discover where they had come from. Without a library this was likely my best option moving forward, my pride preventing me from going back empty handed. I had to know more, even if it killed me.

Eventually I came across a pair of reinforced double doors tilted at an angle that would've led to the building's basement, or in the mansion's case. A dungeon I suspected by the marks left in the wooden floor boards before they were cut off by the door's threshold. The entrance was wrapped in metal chains with a complicated looking lock that tied them together, but by this point I had long since grown tired of subtlety. The longer I took to find some god forsaken key the more shit I would undoubtedly have to swim my way out of.

Bright orange chains came loose as they swung widely from suddenly snapping under the continuous stream of flames. The opened doors reviewed a set of stairs leading down into what must've been the mansion's basement, utterly void of light except for the small amount of light that this room shined down the hole. Down to a dead end with two alternate paths that I could take.

Once down there my head turned to gaze down the dark hallways to either side of me, considering my next move. Glancing at the sides to both ways, revealed vertical steel bars marking various prison cells. The sight, combined with the wretched smell of pure filth mixed in what must've been weeks old blood put my stomach in knots. Sucking it up, my lighter sparked to life providing me with a limited view of my surroundings as I traveled deeper in a place that reeked of death.

As more of my surroundings came into sight, bones and dried blood stained the interiors for some of the cells I'd only been able to see part of. My gut still rolled in disgust as I passed through the dungeon, each cell being worse than the last. Some held the bodies of those in the very early stages of decomposition, shining light over their bodies revealed countless lesions and bloody rashes. Those I kept a good deal of distance away from, but others had been dismembered like some were looking for something. Chest cavities entirely empty from what I could tell, uncaring of age or sex, and some cells had clearly been host to multiple autopsies.

I felt little more than a shred of sympathy for those that had ended up in this horrid place, but it was the sort of atrocity that my modern self wasn't more accustomed to. A familiar sense of detachment sunk into my bones as my gaze swept over each cell, feeling like this was set in another country facing catastrophe rather than happening right before my eyes.

"Ah, [Belphegor. Come over] and [make yourself useful] for [once]!" She nearly made me jump out and scream, the voice that had startled me sounding like nails on a chalkboard. Snapping my gaze over to the older woman she appeared to be dressed in garb similar to her associates, but with a lone fire burning in her off hand. Without looking away from the bloodied clipboard in her hand she issued what sounded like a command, "Get [started] on the [requisition orders] for [more test subjects]."

Lv. 10, Witch

HP: 30/30 Mv: 2

Str: 7 Lck: 6

Mag: 16 Def: 8

Dex: 13 Res: 10

Spd: 10 Cha: 12

The person that appeared directly responsible for all of this suffering looked to be right here. Swinging my head away from the gruesome scene that had played out within every god forsaken cell down here, I picked up the pace as steady flickering orange runes surrounded my form.

[Enemy Phase]

"[Belphegor]-," The monochromatic woman's exasperated tone held a tinge accusatory tint to it as she glanced over in my direction. No excuse along the lines of 'the price of progress' could be made for this shithole. A distinct lack of a cleaning agent in the air threatened to send bile out through my throat, "[What] are you-"

The witch's expression shifted into a snarl as she took a half step away from me as my Prepared string of flame struck her arm. It failed to kill her instantly, and she seemed to know it too. Taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack with an outstretched hand while she brandished dark purple tome in the other.

13 Points of Damage!

17 Experience!

I've had experience with loads of types of pain, ranging from searing burns to more mundane cuts and bruises. What she inflicted back onto me was certainly an irritating sensation to watch my own flesh rot and peel away before my very eyes in real time. By the look of shock that grew across her face as sweat accumulated across her brow I assumed that it should've been far deadlier than it had failed to be.

- 1 (x2) HP 11/30

Her retaliation was fierce, but it wasn't nearly enough to make a difference. Adrenaline was finally flowing in full force as it did its best to numb the foreign pain as I grasped the right moment that I could push through her assault. I wasn't willing to just lay down, and allow myself to be put down like some rabid dog right after finding a definitive strand of hope to cling to. Returning home was just around the corner, the magic running through my veins boiled my blood at the thought of letting my lifeline go willingly.

"Who are you?" Igniting the air around me as my heartbeat sped up to reach the low hundreds that interrupted her questioning my identity. Releasing a brief hiss from the pain, I adjusted my ironclad grip on my knife in my offhand as my arms came down with a second spell ready. Fully charged before the new tome in her hands could flicker to life. Dousing her with flame as the unholy curse that she'd been concocting seemed to die in its infancy.

15 Points of Damage!

20 Experience!

She should've been dead at this point, a large molten hole had been cut into her chest from the continuous blast of fire. I wasn't expecting to be able to muster the strength to even fight back considering how one side of the fight had started off. From the midst of the stream of flame something deep within my chest cramped painfully, feeling the muscles attached to my rib yank violently.

- 3 HP 8/30

- 6 HP 2/30

[Player Phase]

Death would've been preferable, the shadowy spikes poking up out of the floor and into my body turned out to be as real as they could be. Enough for the blood that I coughed up to make me regret everything as universally mocking words reached my ears, "[Your victory here] is [meaningless]. . ."

"Go. To. [Hell," I didn't care that my grasp on the language was shitty, just that she understood my intention to burn her alive. The words came with some effort, a similar focus that I used while controlling mana that I felt confident enough in my advantage to waste some of. Annoying, I wasn't rewarded with any screams to punctuate the way her eyes exploded from the sudden influx of heat.

Something inside snapped and the last vestiges of her strength blinked out of existence, collapsing against the wall behind her. Despite the low amount of light available to paint the world with color, her scowl remained even in death as her facial features immediately started to sag. Erratic bouts of steaming blood dripped down from her various wounds, eating away at her clothing on its way to the floor.

15 Points of Damage!

39 Experience!

18 Reason [6 (x2) 2, 4 (x2) Class Mastery

Mastered skills for Monk

Learned the Ability: Prepare

The wicked witch bitch was finally dead, god that felt so much longer than it probably was.

Woooh. . . Things had gotten a bit dicey at the end there. Brought out of my tunnel vision I noticed that the cubs that chose to hide behind me just after our fight had begun. Lucky to have gotten the drop on her considering the immense amount of magic that she had been gathering near the end once she noticed my resistance to her attacks.

Probably could've been less impulsive about the whole affair, but any fight you can walk away from is a good one in my book.

'Brooouuwwr!'

'Man I'd kill for a McGriddle,' My stomach had chosen the worst time to chime in, but I don't think my body cared all that much. Given I had only eaten a single loaf of bread in the last twenty-four hours. The corpse of the strange woman that I'd killed had slugified in the time I spent catching my breath, she stank worse than the literal dead bodies. Similarities with the fucked up lizard we're noted, and prompting dropped with the scent of danger that lingered in the air. Just great news to know that I resided in the same plane of existence as a bunch of xenomorph wannabe bastards. . . Just fan fuckin-tastic.

"Fucking vampires," I tiredly muttered to myself, groaning in pain as I bent halfway at the waist once the ordeal was over and down with. Directly facing the dead woman's corpse head on, but with my head down far more preoccupied with my own pain, I decided to push past the unnerving feeling squirming deep within my gut. Electing to simply believe it to be a trick of the light. Fuck my life, seriously, what did I even do?

A sharp huff, almost splitting into a manic giggle crept out of my chest. A hint of delirium dripped from my pained words leaking out of my mouth while the absurdity of what my life had turned into sunk in. I just let myself get my head on straight before I continued exploring, as the swirling daze that sustaining magical damage had sent me into faded.

Crackling in the open air as if the liquid were boiling under a saucepan, and her acidic blood stayed the same shape once it left her body. The blood pooling under her painted the floor with something closer to an inky black than a dark crimson.

Either way, I wasn't keen on stepping foot in that shit while I lived and breathed. Needless to say, while I felt like I was on the brink of death with bones that akin to glass, and aches threatening to send uncontrollable spasms. I made the executive decision to take some of that vulnerary orally with the hope my money had been well spent.

10 HP 12/30

My general assessment was that it tasted like straight ass, minty though, something my much abused taste buds appreciated. With such a close call, the idea of taking Anna up on her insane offer appealed to me, maybe I was just tired of near death experiences. It was probably that.

I almost tossed the same thing into the puddle of the woman's pool of acid that her corpse was dissolving into. . .Actually.

Honestly it was embarrassing how long it took for me to realize that I should be making records of my experiences. Flipping on my camera light as well despite having less than thirty percent of a charge left, I'd have to charge it when I had the opportunity. Getting a good angle occupied much of my time as I felt the muscles in my chest uncompress so that I could breathe unobstructed.

The medallion's humming, its vibrations from its place in my jacket was causing my teeth to chatter even from so far away. Couldn't even use the cold as an excuse, the approximate area I inhabited had risen a few degrees since the fight had begun. My sense of well, everything, but mainly relative peace of mind was gone until I took the piece of silver into my hands.

I hadn't noticed the changes occurring in real time with the first seal, but I wasn't as ignorant as I once was before.

"You impatient piece of shit," I didn't really know what to make of the actual changes as the seal snapped into place beside the first, adding a second bead of pressure to my skull. The artificial headache was closer to a never ending recurring mental reminder to manually breathe than anything truly painful, "Now that is some freaky shit."

Within the deep recesses of my brain had been replaced by the label of Monk with that of Mage. Hurt like hell, so much so that I had to blot out the rest of the world while I walked with a hand against the wall. Simultaneously I felt the need to avoid sensory overload, and seek out new ones to overwrite the old mental aches inside of my skull.

The shadows shifted as I passed by the various cells, most of the ones that I encountered after my little spat with that bitch were empty. Completely barren save for the shackles hooked up to the walls, but unfortunately they did not remain that way as I traveled deeper.

Rats, lots of the rodents infested this section of the prison.

The light chittering of rodents scouring through the bones littering the various cells stopped to stare at me, only returning to scavenge after entertaining a moment's curiosity. While most of the rats chose to avoid and ignore my passing, there were still some that trailed farther behind me. Most of them would scatter the very moment I swung my light towards them, and I hoped pups would be able to handle the rest of the larger than normal rodents on their own.

Only time would tell, just as I came across progressively more intact corpses and fatter rodents surrounding them. The stench of rot had greatly intensified, with both waste and blood mixed in equal measure of every breath that I took. My lighter's meager amount of light just made things seem more creepy than they were, but I wasn't sure how much worse it could've gotten than this.

"Why couldn't this have just been an ordinary rich guy's basement. . ." My words came out in the form of a weak whine, reminiscent of the noise that wolves had made whenever I had to deny them literally anything. While I wasn't wading through a literal sea of dead, but it might have been comparable purely based on the sheer number of bones. "Why? Why are there so many?"

My eyes turned to scan each cell that I passed, stuck with a constant grimace on my face as they registered the limp bodies covered in rags. Too many bloody chunks, and severed decayed limbs, separated from bloated corpses. Eventually I came across smaller piles, an odd and a sudden change to the dead that I'd been trying to ignore up till now. My curiosity won out in the end, dragging my feet to the closest set of iron bars to peer into the contents with the holding cell.

'Oh Dear God Almighty,' My breathing quickened, and my eyes darted around to examine the room that featured a resident smaller than the one that came before. From what I could gather this had been the final resting place for women, but this one without longer hair and smaller than other adults. Shifting my head closer, part way into the cell at this point to identify tiny hands and bare feet. "That's not. . . That's a fucking child, oh that's a kid. . It can't be-but it looks-and- NO! This has just been a long fuckin day, maybe it's just a dog. I'm seeing things. They're just weird and put a rabid dog in jail or something, people did weird shit like this back in the old days right?"

The realization had driven me to retreat back and pace, a worsening situation finally getting to me. I sucked in a breath, and used the brief but quiet moment to calm my nerves. Steadying them as my magic flared to life, heat built around my fist as it collided with the cell's steel knob. Ignoring the pain I was able to take a closer look at the sliver of light reflecting off glossy eyes of a dead child staring off into the distance past me.

It shouldn't have surprised me. At this point I wouldn't doubt that my mind was playing tricks on me, but it was for that same reason and same tiny sliver of doubt that drove me to see it up close. The rats that had been tearing into the child's body fled once I was close enough, holding onto bloody chunks of flesh as they left. My foot launched a rodent nibbling on the child's ear that hadn't been scared off by my presence, "Fucking rats."

'Why does it always involve kids? WHY?' My tone had become venomous as I allowed the worst sort of slurs to slip through, flipping between disgust and cold hatred. I was clenching my own teeth so hard, the grinding could be felt as one of them chipped under the pressure.

Even through my gloves I could tell their hair was heavily matted with blood, congealed and cold to the touch. Holding him up caused something inside of him to slosh around, quickly settling as I kept him in place. Flipping him over I could tell that the young boy that had locked away to rot in here had died long ago, holding a finger to his neck confirmed as much. With no bloating, and this place not supplying much heat. . .

He's maybe been dead for two or three days, in these sort of conditions the time estimate seemed possible.

A bright flash rang out through the hall, the phone in my hand briefly lighting up the room around me. Lowering it after I was done, releasing a sigh before shutting the child's eyes. There's no court that I realistically turn to is there? In that case, we document and record. I had to do something, so that I didn't break something or someone by accident.

I just hoped that it'll be enough.

Moving onto the rest of the body, my hand shifted the child's arms looking for wounds. Bite and scratch marks from the various rodents littered the upper body, even going so far that the past rat had removed an ear. Leaving only a bloody hole in its place. While there were plenty of bite marks of their own to be found on his legs, and entire toes ripped from his feet.

It was going to the center of his chest that finally revealed something that seemed out of place to me. The detail that drew my attention came from the bandage wrapped around his abdomen, pulling it aside to reveal an angry scar stuck in the healing process. A photo of it joined the other stored on my phone, my gaze flickering between the door and the boy's chest.

Leaving my phone on the ground next to me, and swapping it out for what remained of my switchblade. Using it in tandem with the dagger I had picked up to perform some improved surgery. The initial cutting proved. . difficult to say the least. The flesh was tougher than it had been cutting into people who were still alive, sliding edge against the bottom of his ribs. Slicing away to peel back the skin to expose the rib cage underneath, and in every motion was more anger than the last.

It was sloppy, and the kid didn't deserve to be treated like an animal meant for slaughter, but I don't have a lot of fucking time. And even fewer options.

"What-" The smell was putrid, there was something deeply wrong and that was more than simply dissecting a dead child to begin with. Cracking open the chest cavity caused black blood to spill out into the open air, the liquid almost deem to steam as it coated my gray gloves. Droplet fell from my fingertips only to paint the floor a darker hue.

"The-" My words were coming out between brief hisses of pain, the scorching liquid felt close to boiling as it passed over my hands. Using both of my hands, I pushed them back into the opening that had been created. The skin resisted the sudden shift, wishing to revert back to its former position despite bending under force like rubber.

"Fuck?" I'd been left oh so properly stunned after digging in a firmer grip and pulling the layer back. Blackened veins ran interconnect amidst the muscle underneath the skin, as little as he had, but they were readily obvious given how emaciated he appeared to be. Another fault from being abandoned down here. Really, it was after pouring the excess out onto his other side where I didn't reside, that I fully understood what it was that I was looking at. It was certainly an odd piece of evidence.

A lack of it really.

I had thought that he looked thin, as horrible as it is, such a thing was expected. A litany of broken ribs, only shards left over at this point as sternum had been left cracked and halfway healed because of it. A bright white scar gluing the two broken pieces back together. What was more unsettling was how few ribs his body had, the complete absence of parts of his internal organs and the web of black veins ingrained within his flesh.

Not every appeared to be so. . . corrupted, but from where I'd torn him open it certainly looked that way.

Everything that was in reach seemed to be showing signs of severe decay, almost as if he had been dead for so much longer then I had initially thought. Most of the ribs had eroded, seemingly had rotted for much longer than the rest of the body had. Pulling the loose bone fragments apart from the spine, and light cracks echoed in the small cell. Leaning away from the fumes, that and soft sizzling were the only sounds that occupied my mind whilst in the midst of things.

All of it for nothing, less than nothing.

The lungs were a mess, bleached white skin revealed itself once I lifted the right lung up out of the tainted blood. Dark veins led into the organ, strands of black split into smaller parts as a bright white took their place to cover the rest. Sections of the organ showing signs of fraying at the edges.

'Dragonfruit', such was the treacherous thought that creeped into my brain at the very moment that I was examining the damage. I huffed at the idea, half angry at myself for getting so distracted.

Another photo was taken after wiping my gloved hand clean against my leg, and carefully dragging my broken knife in place. Slicing my blade into place came with a great amount of effort, and more than I thought it would take. While it may have been due to the top part being melted off, the skin hadn't proved to show so much resistance before. Redoubling my efforts helped, treating it more like how one would cut into Balsa wood rather than with a surgeon's grace.

Blood poured out as I made the cut, dark liquid once again coated my blade down to the fiberglass handle. Groans of disgust came in equal measure as the ones that entailed my frustration.

I dumped the excess, squeezing the flesh of trapped fluid for a clearer view inside of the malformed lobes. The bronchi had shriveled in my unaided eyes. Abrasions and scratches lining the insides of the lung, zooming in on the pictures I took showed they had torn even holes in the smallest bronchi. While I hadn't gone to study medicine and only retained a moderate understanding of the human body, this appeared to be far beyond simple 'necrosis'.

Moving onto the one on the left, the lung that rested on that side was far more damaged than the other. A thinner version, and large to the point of being cancerous almost. For this, I simply cut away at the veins that were connecting it to the body, and gained access to the heart in the same stroke.

The space between the defective lungs was vacant, because there was no heart left behind to speak of.

There was no trace of it, nor the veins that should have led to its resting place, but where it should have been slotted, remained the fractured sliver of a rock. Shattered pieces of circular glass, some material that I couldn't identify with a texture harder than bone. I was properly stumped, holding the strange shards out in front of my torch and wondering where this poor child's fleshy heart had disappeared off to.

This did not belong here.

I pocketed the largest, and most intact fragment beside the tome in my rucksack. Placing what other pieces that I could scavenge into smaller compartments as I left the cell with the door locked behind me. A brief stream of light from looking back showed the boy's corpse, and face covered up by the same rags he had passed away in. My muscles ached from the blood boiling in my veins.

Other cells held the corpses of those in worse conditions, their dead forms visibly breaking apart at the seams. Checking each room was necessary. I had to be certain that there was nothing that I'd overlooked. Backtracking, moving back to the prisoners that were in the rooms before and searching the bodies that had been left behind.

There was a distinct split between the people being kept down here, either being empty, and the ones that usually were. Only kept vacant save for the bones. From where I'd found the young boy's corpse, with everyone that I passed being remarkably more intact than the ones that had come before.

And smaller.

Some shred of a younger, and innocent version of me died a little more with each prisoner that I came across. Close to a dozen consisting of a mix of adults, teenagers and children that were practically toddlers or younger.

I'd gone through with checking each body, the skin and bones belonging to the older ones cracked under the slightest amount of pressure. They looked so much like that strange women I'd killed, while the younger ones had fallen victim to similar symptoms as the boy I'd found earlier. Unlike the boy, the corpses belonging to smaller children were less intact and far more rotted away. Each bearing opaque corneas in all further cases that I found.

"Awgkh awgkh awgkh," My head snapped to the direction of the noise, letting the head of one of the dead that I had been examining drop to the floor. It was a brief raspy thing, enough to put me on edge and catch my attention despite what was the center of my focus. Holding my ear close to the wall, and keeping my torch out of sight to any further sound. Only catching a light groan. "Krmmm. . ."

A pressure built itself up from within my gut, coiling paranoia as I stepped out to approach the source. Where to bathe a cell with fire in case I discovered that they had been trying to create some unholy abomination. The bodies I passed now were getting larger, teenagers maybe? Still without finding any sign of who or what had produced that sound that I'd initially caught wind of.

Until I did.

She just seemed like another one of the dead, a glancing look made her appear not different from the others imprisoned here. Chained to the wall with her arms twisted back behind her back, kneeling with her head bowed.

The light clinking of those very same chains drew my eyes, my head snapping in her direction just in time to hear her whimpers. Trying to shift herself into a more comfortable sitting position while in the midst of a nightmare, "No no no no, [daddy please, please]. . ."

I abandoned moving quietly, light but firm taps hitting the floor as I approached the cell. Her eyes remained shut up even as I was right in front of her, and it wasn't like I was trying to be particularly stealth anymore. That plan had gone out the window ages ago.

She quickly devolved into a babbling mess at my touch, beyond sensitive to if the fever that surpassed the orange sigils suggested. How her brain hadn't been cooked already was a mystery, but I wasn't about to allow her life to slip out of my fingers.

This was certainly time to improvise if there was any.

Despite her muffled bawling I focussed on causing her as little pain as possible, directing my mana through the tension in her muscles first. Imagine the effect radiating from those points to fill in her most recent wounds, where her heart was beating the hardest and when energy in her head spiked. Anna's lesson hadn't been very thorough due to our time constraints, but I did the best I could considering.

Aiming at the metal chain that linked her to the wall, I took great care so that flaming fragments would bounce off me before any could hit her. The steel shattered under the force of the spell, super heated until the links within my grip couldn't take it anymore. Yellow fragments flew out from the impact site, spilling onto the ground harmlessly while the young girl was none the wiser.

Taking advantage of the heat that I could still feel in my hand. I redirected the residual heat back into her body as I did my last sweep before leaving with who I'd found. Of the fire that had fueling my actions? Most of it was simmering hate rather than a boiling rage, I didn't have enough energy for that anymore outside of fighting for my life.

Satisfaction wouldn't be quite the feeling that could be said running through my mind, but I hoped she would appreciate being free again. Uncertainty kept me from jostling her around too much, that would only make me stress more and delay things. There was nothing I could do but wait.

So I fidgeted, patted down my pockets for my various possessions. Just looking for something, anything really.

I hadn't had the time to give her a good once over, but once I had her in my arms? White hair adorned her scalp, and while I'd seen white hair before. Her's was closer to the whitened threads coming from age than would normally belong to someone with a platinum mane. Scared witless and stressed out of her mind from the looks of it, the sight leaving an uncomfortable lump in my throat. Pushing away my own treacherous mind from trying to compare her to other familiar faces back home.

"Hello," She was weaker than I'd like, and leagues away from well, and while the sunken cheeks worried me a tad much. It was an issue capable of being remedied. Some part of it was reassuring, that she was still alive and bore enough strength to show how she felt at the moment. I could work with this, "I know you don't know me, but I want you to know that you'll be safe. For as long as I'm around that is."

Her condition terrified me.

My nails bit into my skin from how much I clenched my fist whenever she took a little longer than normal to breathe. I was really not keeping it together as well as I hoped. Jaw aching from self inflicted pain with every shallow breath that I felt her take, a simple truth that I could do nothing to ignore.

Something just felt, off, the people that I came across all appeared to share a single feature with the girl I carried in my arms. White hair, or at the very least, hair caught in the process of whitening. Whenever we passed another cell that I had to check, caught between keeping my grip and busting doors down. In a few cases, I avoided entering the cells entirely. Bloated to hell and back with some disease, it would do the poor girl no good if I got her any closer to them.

An older man that appeared to be in his teens rocked back and forth, muttering to himself with a bloodied scalp. Torn out chunks of white locks lay strewn about him. I could've sworn that he was watching me.

They seemed to be better off dead too.

I had exhausted all of my options, and aside from the girl whimpering whilst in the safety of my arms? To say that I was tired of this place would be an understatement. My first thought was that I had started to see things, it certainly felt like this night had been playing tricks on me.

Part of me thought one of the prisoners we'd passed was staring at us.

From the depths of a room encased with iron bars just like all the rest, beyond where my dwindling light could reach. My hair stood on end, as if I was being watched again. So I tested them, to settle my paranoia and nerves if nothing else. Their face followed us, followed me as I walked back down the hall and kept turning in order to track me.

Another young girl, I saw her glancing down at the one in my grasp and back at me to verify what she was seeing. I wouldn't blame her but regardless, I opened the door to enter the cell as their eyes remained on each other. Part of me expected a freak out, that'd make freeing her a difficult matter, but she was only calm as she allowed me to break her shackles. Staring at the girl in my arms, and grabbing onto my cloak as soulless eyes looked up at me.

'What have they done to you, to all of you?'

The first girl that I'd found had thicker hair while the latter was straighter, but both were short. The former was fearful while the other was more apathetic, violet eyes lingering on the circular marks engraved upon her wrists from the chains that held her. The calming wave of Soothe, seemed to help with getting her onto walking on her own.

We came to a sort of wordless understanding, with the newly freed girl reluctantly coming along as her eyes occasionally glanced warily at my wolves. It was easier to think of them as siblings, they seemed to know each other in some respect or at least the awake one did. Murmuring the same word that I assumed to be the name for the one taking a nap in my arms, "[Benedikta, Benedikta, Benedikta]. . ."

Like she was in a state of shock over it.

Thunder roared as we rose to the mansion's ground floor, the girl in my arms shook like a leaf and tightened her grip. Looking bewildered by what she was seeing, like she hadn't seen the outside in so long it had become the echo of a memory. My blood boiled at that.

Rain and lighting seemed to be in full swing, casting a violent war for the heavens above to be born witness by the world below. Stormlight briefly illuminated the courtyard, where I expected there to be reinforcements only mounds of snow remained. The bells however, they had never stopped ringing it seemed.

Glancing in the direction that I'd snuck in through earlier, the weight of what I was doing sunk in once more. The plan could survive a few changes, it would have to. Puffing out my aura the area around me had a soft orange glow to it that brought a bit more life to the girls that had so little of it left to withstand the storm with. It seemed that I would have to burn both ends of the candle a little longer now.

---

Chapter 7 Note: (Jan 19-20th)

- I fucked up and placed class exp for Monk at the end of chapter 5 as 4/60, when it was supposed to be 10/40. So much googling had to go down in order to figure how exactly Class exp and Mastery is supposed to fucking work. Honestly the game's requirements for class experience is stupid (20, 60, 100, 150, 240) and none of the wikis or reddit pages agree on what exactly it is. Now I could just freeball and go off vibes or the general tempo of the story, but I want to get lazy and let this affect other details of the story.

I've been going back and forth about what to do with several details as I've been writing, and for Class Exp awarding 2 points per instance of combat seems to work better than 1. Making it 1 would probably just be repetitive and boring to read. This isn't a video game, I don't want to write about skill grinding for 10 pages. In the pursuit to add some consistency and ease my growing migraine class exp requirements will just be double of whatever the previous class was. Ex: 20 - Unique, 40 - Beginner, 80 - Intermediate, 160 - Advanced, 320 - Master.

Weapon exp would be based on the number of attacks made with a weapon and not the instances of combat. Honestly most changes with exp have occurred in the back end with the intention of adapting it to the medium of literature. Exp as a whole has been a detail that I've been neglecting, but it is important for information when I write fight scenes.

- Revealing the POV characters in the actual story was something that I thought that I had already done in Chapter 4, turns out that was a line of dialogue that I ended up scrapping because the addition didn't feel natural. Alcides for much of his time with other people has either been a slave or attempting to lay low, and even in the previous version of the story where discretion didn't matter that much. I could never find a way to reveal his name organically. Oliver can't ask and call Aclides by his real name because while in the presence of other normal people that would draw unwanted attention in the same way that traveling with an unshackled foreigner would in chapter 2. Having Alcides refer to myself in the third person would've been just as equally as strange, and while I could've found a solution eventually. I didn't want to delay this story indefinitely so I suppose this when I introduce that fact. Of course this isn't a realistic world, but I'm aiming for an immersive experience I wanted to tread carefully. Waiting this long just made sense to me. I hope it wasn't too jarring for readers, but since no one has complained about this time so I assume that I've implemented it well in this iteration of the idea. Feel free to correct me, I'd greatly appreciate any and all insight into my work.

- Like with the MC's name I haven't been entirely sure how to handle the Gamer elements, of course their involvement has been minimal, but it has been fun to play around with. Direct self awareness of it isn't what I'm aiming for, but I think that it helps readers especially since I can't post photos to . I am planning to make a whole tab and add photos for the version on QQ, later on AO3 if I can figure out how the website works.

- Traps don't award EXP, I'm treating it the same way that I did the out of control forest fire.

- Ended up being way longer than I planned, just kept writing and I never found a good place to stop till after the point where we pick up Bernie and Edel.

Choices (optional to participate in)

1) Once in a lifetime opportunity, a character's canon rewrite. Be warned! I have many terrible things in store for multiple characters, and you are only getting this once. You can comment complex conditions under which this will activate(like saving it for later or something), but if enough people comment just the name with nothing else. I will monkey's paw the fuck out of it, you can also suggest your own fucked up ideas about what should happen to a character and I will do my best to write that in. No retcons. This is not comparable to Sothis's time reversals.

2) Pick one deficiency and proficiency for Alcides to adopt, alongside the proficiencies and deficiencies he already possesses. If they coincide or contradict what is already present then a proficiency will be negated or a deficiency will be converted into a weakness.

3) Wolf pup names! WooooooW, you guys get to name the dogs. That or I'll just spin a randomizer for names that I think would be funny. (You can still suggest names for the 2 that are alive, the ones I have now are placeholders until I get something more fitting.)

P.F.O. (Projected Fight Outcomes); Monsters are getting the advanced/DLC exp bonus of x 1.45 for exp calcs.

1:

A will be assumed to have a lower intelligence and higher aggression rating, which will make the action order. Abomination Bear Alcides. To follow with being thrown, the Bear will start with 75% of its total health and be poisoned, thus HP: 40/53, while the fight will start on the bear counter attacking the abomination. The Abomination can't physically damage the Dire Bear(nor deal any crits), while the Bear can deal 5(x2) damage in return each turn. Random chances gets: 81, 65 to poison the bear, both attacks fail. Bear has a 25% to inflict a bleed on the Abomination that will reduce its resistance by 10. The Abomination's first health bar will be represented by the muzzle, having two in total. Muzzle health will be = Wt Mt. (Both suffer 2 more damage due to my personal skill)

Random outputs; 30, 14, 51, 69. Describe bleeding after the bear's second swipe, make it a bit or something. (Res: 14/24) Bear retaliates and leaves the muzzle with HP: 4/24 after the fourth hit, leaving me open to attack. Dumping my pack would leave me with a weight of 1 if I took along my knife, and an AS of 14. A spell attack with Blaze would deal 9(x2) damage and would break the first health bar and leave A at HP: 8/17. With a crit chance to burn and reduce defense; random numbers are 34 and 76, so no burn. (Exp: 89) Level Up. Renewal brings that back up to HP: 11/17.

Skip the Abomination's turn because of the barrier break, A takes 5x2 points of damage from the bear. Left at HP: 1/17 for me to finish off by dealing 10 damage. (Exp: 94)

Now that the abomination is dead the Dire Bear turns to me as the next significant threat in its perceived territory. Since poison deals damage = to the weapon's might, by the bear's third turn its Res will be 0 and will have taken 2 points of damage when it targets me. (A change of 8 per turn) HP: 38/53. Bear's 41 - my 12, = 29 points of damage. Damn I guess this is happening sooner than I planned. Experience the first pseudo death as one of the cubs takes the brunt of the damage through our psychic connection. (Like a reverse Xcom mind merge) My counter is skipped because Alcides is briefly considered dead. Use a combination of a normal attack on my turn to deal 23 points of damage and the prepared spell for an extra 21 damage. (As a method of balancing, prepared spells do not benefit from skills like personals or rally's.) Bear's health drops from 38 to 15 and from 15 to 0. (Exp: 113, 198) Level Up. Burns and bleeds don't matter, but I should include them for flavor text.

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Character Sheet and Details

Alcides, Lv [10] Monk, Experience: 130/235

HP: 30 (40%)

Mv: 2

Str: 13 (35%)

Lck: 9 (30%)

Mag: 20 (60%)

Def: 13 (35%)

Dex: 10 (40%)

Res: 21 (60%)

Spd: 15 (50%)

Cha: 6 (20%)

Class Growths: (Mage)

HP: 5%, Str: 0%, Mag: 10%, Dex: 5%, Spd: 0%, Lck: 0%, Def: 0%, Res: 10%, Cha: 0%

Base Critical Chance: 9.5% = [(Luck Dex) / 2]

Dodge: 9% = Luck Ability bonus

Base Attack Speed: 8 = Speed [Inventory weight (Strength / 5)]

Personal Skill: [Deserve to Die] - Foes within four spaces take 2 extra points of damage.

Class Ability 1: [Prepare] - Spend an action to store any spell that can be triggered at any later date as an action with no reaction. [Monk Mastery required, 40/40]

Class Ability 2: [Logos, Lv 1 - Grants 1 range for spells per whole new letter grade above F. (D = Rng: 2)

Class Ability 3: [Pathos, Lv 1 - Increases the user's max uses of spell by 0.1 per partial letter grade beyond F. (Note: I draw the line at keeping track of spell usage)

Class Ability 4: [Ethos, Lv 2 - Grants the ability to use magic that is lower than or equal to this skill's placement * 2. (E = 4 Mt Currently)

Class Ability 5: [Mastery required]

Ability 1: [Knife Prowess, Lv 5 - Grants 5% to land a crit while using sharp weapons.

Ability 2:

Ability 3:

Ability 4:

Ability 5:

Learned Combat Arts: [Flash Slash] - Allows the user to throw their weapon at the target, with a durability cost of 5, increased range of 1 tile. (Str Weapon Mt 3 = Atk)

Learned Abilities: (n/a)

Available Spells: [Frostbite] - Mt: 4 Crit: 0 Rng: 0 Lv: F Gains 30% critical hit chance against burning targets to trigger shock and skip the target's next counter-attack, the target's burning status will be removed regardless of triggering shock.

Learned Spells: [Blaze] - Mt: 3 Crit: 15 Rng: 0 Lv: F Can inflict Burns that reduce physical defense equal to might on critical hits.

Skill Levels: Knives (70; C), Reason (89; C), Authority (26; E), Faith (5; F), Daggers (0; F)

Proficiencies: Reason.

Deficiencies: Faith.

Budding Talent: (n/a)

Inventory: Steel Knife (1 mt, 10% crit, 1 wt), One Ice Tome (4 wt), One Vulnerary, and a pair of Sacred Galewind Shoes (0 wt), traveling pack (7 wt), 2 silver ore (2 wt), 1 bronze ingot (2 wt), Knowledge gem (0 wt), Argathian Dagger (6 wt). Total wt = 22

Currency: 75 Gold Coins.