I awoke to the stinging, acrid odor of the smoke from an electrical fire. My eyes felt heavy, as though my body was warning me of the hell I was soon to be born into, and yet, I forced my eyes upon. My gaze first fell upon the cerulean sky above me, and the tendrils of smoke snaking across my vision like fingers of darkness trying to tempt me back into sleep.
'Move' That's all I could think, 'Just move!' my body felt reluctant, somehow both heavier and yet smaller than what I'd known it to always be. I clambered to my feet, hands grasping and reaching for the sides of whatever container I had found myself in. Coughing and retching I slowly gain my bearings after my rude awakening. Looking back at my place of awakening I am shocked to see what must be a glass tube grown to absurd sizes and attached with many electrical components whose purpose and provenance I cannot even begin to guess. Though I'm sure the fire has already made it impossible to learn what function it once performed.
I turn my attention further outward as I wipe the last of the residue from the fire the best I can from my body, there's nothing but flat land for seemingly miles, plains of grass of a deep yellow like wheat ready for harvest, but if it was ready then where were the farmers?.
"This isn't wheat though… The tops are different, the grains are too large and the stalk is so large… Something is wrong. Where am I?"
My hands even feel wrong, fingers too stubby to my eyes and much thicker, like the hands of a large child.
"No… This is wrong, it's all wrong, I have to be asleep!" As soon as I felt myself devolving into a full-blown panic, it was gone. I was, at ease and yet that still unsettled me. 'How did I calm down so quickly? Maybe… No. That's insane. But I'm clearly not home, and this can't be my body… Am I…'
"Satus?" I said half expecting nothing and yet, there before me in a screen just the same as the first manwha I ever read, 'The Gamer', was a screen.
Name: John
Age: 8
Race: Human
Title: ?
Attributes-
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 20
Charisma: 20
Constitution: 20
Traits-
?- 500% bonus to skill leveling, you are unable to have your mind affected by outside influences, remain in complete control of your emotions.
?- ?
Skills-
None
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I said in complete exasperation at the sight before me. I knew I'd always wished I could have left my world for a world like The Gamer, but never could I have expected it to happen. "Did I die? What about my family? Oh god… What about my cat! Lucy is gonna have no dad!" Even as I begin to fall apart, my feelings wash away and a calming wave of clarity washes over me. "That's gonna get really old quick, I'm allowed to feel sad god damn it! Fuck it, let's just figure this shit out. The attributes seem easy enough, just the standard set, so nothing crazy there. Why the hell am I 8 though? I was 28, I had a house god damnit and now I'm a fucking child. I'm still human at least, even if that title is strange.. And the trait? It's like the Gamer's Mind combined with a massive fuck off buff. The second trait is even more of a mystery than the title though… What other possible advantage could I use? Surely this world can't be so dangerous that I need both?... Did I just jinx myself?"
—-
Day 1
I started searching for any signs of life, but as the sun approached its zenith I felt the need to see towards what I knew to be the most important aspects of survival. Water, food, and shelter in that order. I wandered at first, unable to see any real clear direction that I felt would guide me to water. After maybe an hour or two of walking I stumbled upon a bubbling creek cutting through the giant wheat. I cup my hands in the water, feeling the cold, clear liquid running through my hands as I bring it to my lips and take a long pull. I drink my fill before I stand again, surrounded on all sides by the giant wheat grass, reminding me both of my infant body and the alien place I have found myself.
A sudden motion in the wheat startles me, a sound of something hard on the soft ground. I drop into a crouch and reach for a rock on the ground nearby, beggars can't be choosers after all. I hold still and wait, staring intensely as my body tenses, a feeling like liquid fire beginning in my chest and spreading outwards. A shape, much like a deer from Earth, but larger and with 6 distinct legs calmly approaches the water from within the wheat grass, it turns towards me, its large antlers extend its size by at least 4 feet and they look dangerous enough to do me real harm if this thing feels threatened. It turns away after a short staring match, huffs, stomps, and soon multiple others start to appear from the grass. A small family of deer appear, and though they would assuredly feed me if I managed to hunt one, they were much too large for me to risk it with my only weapon being a rock…
I set out once again, having had my fill of water for now and having no real resources to use in this area to gather food, store water, or build a shelter. My only hope from my limited survival knowledge is to find some trees or a cave maybe.
—-
I walk for hours until I finally spot them, large trees in the distance, and the small signs of smoke rising from something. Hopefully a town of some sort and then I can finally try to figure out what sort of world I've been moved to. My small body seems unaffected from the walking, in fact at this point it seemed to be growing easier if anything…
"Status"
Name: John
Age: 8
Race: Human
Title: ?
Attributes-
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 21
Charisma: 20
Constitution: 22
Traits-
?- 500% bonus to skill leveling, you are unable to have your mind affected by outside influences, remain in complete control of your emotions.
?- ?
Skills-
None
"Well, that's interesting. Not much gains but still, every little bit counts"
I close the screen and continue my trek, my feet carrying me even more swiftly now that I have a real location to work towards. The trees grow ever larger in my view and I can't help but wonder what planet of giants I have stumbled across and what must inhabit this planet to need such large plants and animals. Hopefully there's a civilization here of humans that can guide me on my path to adjusting to this alien world.
As I grow closer, the smoke plumes grow larger and seem to spread from more locations. As though there were multiple fires being lit throughout my destination, and my heart clenched. 'What am I walking to? Could it be that there's a celebration?' I thought to myself hopefully.
—-
Complete and utter devastation. That's the only words that could describe the sight before me, a village of ramshackle huts and shacks torn apart and and burned. They were made of scraps of wood, scrap iron, and seemingly any random piece of trash nearby. As I walked into the mass of burned huts, I caught sight of the first body. A large shape in blacks, browns, and green from head to toe, except no. It wasn't dressed in green at all. As I approached I came to the shocking realization that the body itself was green and not human by any means. A short pugnacious nose, a long face, large jaw and pointed ears greeted me as I carefully rolled the form over to look at it's face. A symbol of a 3 small triangles seemingly burned into its tunic, a clan affiliation maybe?
"An Ork?" I said to myself, unbelieving that this would be the first humanoid I would find. A large crude dagger was buried to the hilt in the creatures chest. I gripped it tightly and pulled with all my might, until with a wet squelch it came free. It was too large for my small hands, but it was the first real weapon I had found. I gave it a few experimental swings, and though I was no expert I felt I at least wouldn't stab myself with the brutally shaped dagger.
As I explored I found more and more bodies, most with a symbol like the first, but some with an almost checkerboard pattern except much more crude with the spaces uneven and clearly done without much care for the shapes being evenly made. I managed to find some clothes that weren't covered in blood inside of a destroyed hut, though thankfully one of the ones torn down and not burned. Stolen belt from one of the various Orks around me and suddenly I had a tunic which thankfully covered most of my body, though I felt like a child wearing his father's shirt for the way it reached my knees and I would definitely need to wash it considering the disgusting odor each of these green monsters possessed. I managed to loot a knife belt from one of the bodies to store my dagger, along with the lucky find of a rather large spear with a crude spear tip jammed into the side of an especially large greenskin. I felt more prepared now than ever to survive this place, or at least not die immediately. I can only hope that whatever group that did this doesn't return anytime soon.
Almost immediately I hear shuffling and scraping from the edge of town.
"I really hate myself" I say with an exasperated tone, as I ready my spear for whatever is coming out of the wheat grass.
A small form appears, almost crawling over the ground in its attempts to stay low and unobserved, unlucky then that I've already seen it. I clench harder onto my spear as it slowly stands up, a large nose is the first thing I take notice of. Jutting from its face as if jammed on there as some form of joke purely from how wrong it looked on the face of this small creature, a bald head shined in the sunlight. A loin cloth covered it's modesty, it may have once had a distinct color but now it was naught but a collection of yellows, browns, and greens that spoke of filth and disease to my eyes. It bared sharp, pointed teeth at me as I stood up to my full height.
"Ho there, I mean no harm" I said as calmly as I could.
"Umie? You'ze ent doin nuffin no wayz!" It snarled at me.
"Come now, I just want to know where we are and what's going on." I say placatingly.
"Die umie!" It shouts and rushes at me, pulling a small dagger the size of my childlike hands from its loincloth.
"So much for that!" I lower my spear quickly, and the burning feeling in my chest from near the creek appears again. The greenskins charge slows in my eyes suddenly, I swing the spear down into its path and thrust sharply forward, burying it into the small thing's chest. It seems surprised by the speed of my attack, dropping it's dagger as it claws at the length of metal buried a few inches directly into the center of its chest, the struggle becoming more and more subdued as its red life blood flows out and onto the ground around it. As I feel the weight on the spear go fully slack, I pull and free it from the body of the greenskin. As I look at the pitiful creature before me, I feel a strange urge to do something I would have never considered before.
"I want to eat you. I don't know why, but I feel the need to, just a bit anyways." I cut off a small hunk of flesh from its thigh, feeling no need to cook the meat, I take a tentative bite, and it tastes delicious. Better than any meal I ever had on Earth. "What's wrong with me? Status?"
Name: John
Age: 8
Race: Human
Title: ?
Attributes-
Strength: 21
Dexterity: 22
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 21
Charisma: 21
Constitution: 23
Traits-
?- 500% bonus to skill leveling, you are unable to have your mind affected by outside influences, remain in complete control of your emotions.
Adaptive Biology- Your body seeks to adapt to its environment, by eating creatures you gain a portion of their attributes and skills. You are immune to food poisoning from eating uncooked food.
Skills-
Sneaking: Level 2
Dagger Mastery: Level 1
"Isn't this kinda like that anime with the slime? I mean, I guess I'll take it but holy fuck is it weird."