《Rae Daes》 1: Pandemonium ¡°I will do everything I canto reduce unemployment among the young. I won¡¯t allow our children to waste away their lives in mediocrity any longer. This age of injustice will finally come to an end!¡± a black-haired man in his late twenties shouted, before being interrupted by an earthquake. He grabbed onto the podium to avoid falling, only to realise that the ground was retreating below him. He flailed around trying to escape from the force to no avail. What the hell¡¯s going on?!con The citizens gasped in shock, as his body became blurry, and took out their cell-phones to take pictures. Ten police officers charged in to help him, but ended up slamming into an invisible wall. ¡°You enjoy politics, right? The place you''re going to has so much you could choke on it. Not to mention, the opportunities for exploration and adventure.You will probably die, but it¡¯s also an opportunity to rise far above your station,¡± a voice echoed in his head. ¡°Nooo, I don¡¯t want to die!¡± he screamed as he and the podium faded away into nothingness. Hundreds of police officers poured in and led the crowd away from the scene, including the reporters who were almost wetting themselves with excitement at the thought of being the first ones to broadcast this story. ¡°As you saw, the Mayor of Tremence City has mysteriously vanished. He was making the usual election promises, before he was pulled up into the sky, started begging for his life, and vanished on live television,¡± one reporter said. ----- Fucking traffic jam, my supervisor¡¯s going to kill me. Sweat dripped down Mark¡¯s face as he stepped on the accelerator, and sped towards a busy intersection. ¡°No need to thank me, you will never have to go to the office again,¡± a voice whispered before breaking out into a sinister laugh. Mark howledand faded away, while his car went right into the side of a truck almost making it fall over. Adam shot out and screamed, ¡°Fucking hell. What the fuck do you think you¡¯re doing?!¡± Fucking hell, these damages are going to cost me tens of thousands of dollars, where am I going to get this sort of money?! What¡¯s wrong with these fucking drunk drivers? Go die in a ditch, if you want, but leave me the fuck alone. He walked over to the other car, but the front was too entangled with the trailer for him to see the front and was strangely quiet. Deathly quiet. Not a scream. Not a shout. No cries for help at all. All he could hear was an ominous silence. A shiver went down his back as he unconsciously backed away. D-Don¡¯t tell me¡­ He died? Oh no¡­ Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Why?! Why did he have to die?! What if they blame me for this?! Shit. Shit. Shit. My life is over, I¡¯m going to be in prison for the rest of my days! Calm down, calm down. It¡¯s not all that bad. I just need to get my side of the story across. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be reasonable, there are plenty of witnesses after-all. He pulled up his phone and rang up the emergency services, ¡°There¡¯s been an accident at the third intersection along Edgewood Road. The other driver collided with my truck and his bonnet is deeply entangled in my truck¡¯s trailer. I¡¯ve heard no screams or shouts or any sign of movement from inside.¡± ¡°Okay, we¡¯re sending a patrol and an ambulance your way. Do not move the truck or leave the scene until they arrive,¡± the voice on the other end said. Like hell I¡¯ll do that, running away from the scene, do I look like I want to be treated like a murderer?! He sighed and turned, discovering a hundred-dollar note lying on the ground. Without thinking, he stepped forward to pick it up, but it fluttered away with him pursuing it. Every now and then, a faint giggle echoed out, but he ignored it. Which asshole¡¯s laughing at me?! Whatever. We¡¯ll see who laughs last when I grab this. Ugh. Stop moving, you damn thing. He jumped around several cars before finally grabbing it, when suddenly an invisible fishing line connecting the note to an empty patch in the sky became visible. He tried tugging on it, but it wouldn¡¯t come loose. Guh, what is this thing?! Let go. Give it to me! The faint giggling from earlier suddenly exploded into a full-blown hysterical laughter and he jolted back in fear, only to discover that his hand was still gripping the hundred-dollar note. No matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t get hand free of it. Let go! What¡¯s the hell¡¯s going on?! ¡°Haha, sorry. You humans are so funny to watch sometimes, it reminds me of those cat videos I watched on the internet where they jump up at the toys the humans wave around,¡± the voice said. ¡°Who are you?! What do you want?!¡± Adam screamed and the bystanders gave him a weird look. ¡°The others can¡¯t hear me, you idiot. Neither can they see the fishing line or the hundred-dollar note,¡± the voice explained. Have I finally lost it? Am I so terrified of being held liable for that guy¡¯s death that I¡¯m hallucinating? ¡°No. I¡¯m very much real. More real than you would like, haha,¡± the voice laughed. The fishing line wrapped around him and plucked him up without the slightest cut. The bystanders started screaming as they saw a man floating into the sky and the police patrols showed up. ¡°Let me go! What are you doing?! Help!¡± Adam screamed. ¡°Not again¡­¡± a police officer muttered as Adam vanished into thin air. ----- Heather lied back in her seat, as she watched one of the in-flight movies. She laughed at the antics of the thieves as they planned the most ridiculous heist imaginable, sneaking around in the ventilation shafts? How could they not come up with something to counter that. While she was engrossed in that film, several terrified flight attendants rushed past her towards the cockpit. Most of the passengers ignored this, dismissing it as a minor matter, but several paid close attention. Sitting in a chair behind the dashboard was Jake, a short black-haired pilot in his mid-twenties. Next to him was Matthew, a co-pilot of a similar age. Behind them was Brandon, a middle-aged flight attendant with a muscular build and a long black beard. ¡°What do you mean, we¡¯re going to crash?¡± Brandon asked the pilot. ¡°The fuel gauge has been decreasing far faster than it normally should. I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s a leak, this normally wouldn¡¯t be a problem if we were above land, but do you think we can find an airport in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Are you saying that we¡¯re all going to die?!¡± Brandon grabbed and shook the pilot. ¡°Well, not necessarily, but we¡¯re definitely going to die, if you keep panicking,¡± Jake said and Brandon released him. He sighed as he looked at the stormy seas. Who am I kidding? Most of us are going die. Do you really think we can keep ourselves afloat in those stormy seas? ¡°We have about an hour of fuel left, I¡¯ve already contacted air traffic control, and the government will be sending out several rescue helicopters. We just need to hold out for a couple of hours after landing,¡± Jake explained. Brandon¡¯s face turned pale as he looked at the raging storm outside. ¡°Do you seriously think we can survive in a storm like that? Can we even get the life boats out in time before sinking? Even an Olympian Swimmer would drown under these conditions,¡± he screamed. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but if we¡¯re lucky, the storm will lighten up in an hour, this is the best I can do,¡± Jake sighed as he turned on the PA system. ¡°Attention everyone, this is your pilot speaking. The fuel tanks have a leak, and the plane is going to run out of fuel in a little more than hour. We need you back in your seats with your seatbelts fastened when the time comes. Don¡¯t panic, just follow the guidelines from the safety videos, and I¡¯m sure that we¡¯ll survive,¡± Jake announced. In the back of the plane in economy class, a man in his late thirties named Frank jerked up in their seats and removed his headset. Shit, we¡¯re screwed. Haven¡¯t any of you realised? This is a typhoon. The chances of us surviving a crash is slim to none. It will only get worse as time passes. Shit. Shit. Shit. Frank looked to his side and saw Heather muttering prayers to dozens of different gods. Good luck getting any of them to save us. The gods are nothing more than monsters in angelic garbs. If anything, they will rub salt on our wounds instead. Especially¡­ Him. He reached down and unclasped a latch revealing a life jacket in a compartment under his seat. I don¡¯t know if this will be enough, but this is all I¡¯ve got. Let¡¯s hope this is enough to weather the storm. Heather and several other passengers noticed his life jacket and hastily rushed to unclasp their latches. This behaviour spread to more and more passengers until the entire plane was outfitted with life jackets, with the sole exception being the pilot who was staring at the fuel gauge, and arguing with air traffic control on the radio Shit, they have no solutions to the problem. At this rate, we really will end up in the water. And the weather isn¡¯t lightening up at all. Fucking typhoon, of all the days, why did it have to come today? If it wasn¡¯t for that, most of us would come out alive on the life boats.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Have you tossed out all the luggage?¡± he asked the co-pilot, Matthew. ¡°Yes, the flight attendants have already dumped it all in the ocean, that should lighten the load a little, but there¡¯s a limit to how much fuel we can save,¡± Matthew replied. ¡°Every little helps, if we can slow down the rate at which this plane sinks, then maybe we can save a few more people than we otherwise would have,¡± he explained before resuming his staring match with the fuel gauge. The atmosphere on the plane grew gloomy as the deadline drew ever nearer, some even wet themselves in fear at the thought of their imminent demise, and others welcomed their deaths wishing to reunite with their loved ones. Jake sighed, and a bead of sweat rolled down his face as he grasped the yoke. He flicked the switch to disable the auto-pilot and assumed full control of the plane. The plane shook violently in the turbulent winds and the passengers started screaming thinking the end had come. The muscular flight attendant stared out the window, and shut out the sounds of the passengers. I never thought I would die like this, hundreds of flights, everything going perfectly fine. Why now? What god have I angered to end like this? A typhoon? Fuel running out? How likely is that? Why? Why?! Several passengers instinctively took the brace position the moment the plane began to dip down, and Jake flicked dozens of switches, readying the plane for its final mission. The engines grew silent, and the plane became little more than a glider being shaken by the turbulent winds. The smell of ammonia wafted through the air, but Jake didn¡¯t have time to reprimand or respond to the flight attendant who just wet himself. Instead, he was concentrating wholeheartedly on keeping the plane¡¯s nose aligned and to land safely. ¡°I never thought I¡¯d have to ditch in the middle of a typhoon. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,¡± he thought as he barely kept control over the plane in the turbulent winds. ¡°40 thousand feet. 35 thousand feet. 30 thousand feet,¡± a bead of sweat dripped off his face, when he was suddenly thrown to the side as the plane rolled to the right, only to be held in place by his seatbelt, and the flight attendant let out an inhuman howl. ¡°Fuck. The winds are only getting stronger as I descend,¡± Jake cursed, barely managing to get the plane under control. ¡°O Lord, save us from this tribulation,¡± the flight attendant screamed, as he bounced around in his seat, barely held in place by his seatbelt. ¡°Would you keep it down over there? I¡¯m trying to fly the fucking plane here,¡± the pilot shouted, but the flight attendant ignored him and started praying to a dozen different gods. ¡°If we survive this, I¡¯m going to beat the living crap out of that retard,¡± Jake thought as the waves came into view. He gulped as he pushed in the yoke. ¡°This is it,¡± he thought as he accepted his incoming death, when suddenly, a loud hiss came out of the PA system. ¡°Ah, okay. I got it working. Hello humans. This is Anarak, your favourite god speaking. I¡¯m afraid to inform you that your express flight to the afterlife has been cancelled. Please stop praying to ninety different gods, half of which don¡¯t even exist, and screaming like babies. Good grief.¡± a childish voice rang out of the PA system, just as the plane hit the water. Jake looked out the window and saw a strange dark vortex below, consuming the plane like quicksand. Strange faces appeared outside licking their lips, but in the end breaking up and returning to the darkness. What the hell are those things?! ¡°Please ignore the dimension eaters. They¡¯re completely harmless. Well, most of the time,¡± Anarak¡¯s voice rang out and a chill went down Jake¡¯s back. He didn¡¯t have time to think further when a bright light broke up the dark world revealing a vast green field with a beautiful blue sky, and a long runway. At the end of the runway was a young child hovering above the ground wearing a long black robe. The child smirked and waved his hand. Jake felt his surroundings distort and twist before finding himself on a boundless field with tens of thousands of familiar and unfamiliar people around. This isn¡¯t the plane. Where am I? ¡°Where are we? What¡¯s going on?¡± they asked. Hell if I know, all I know is that it has something to do with that god¡­ Anarak. A short distance away from him, a man in his early twenties named Andrew slowly opened his eyes, and turned to look at the time, but he couldn¡¯t find the clock, or anything in his room for that matter. Instead, he found several hundred people around him. A trembling man behind a podium, a naked man who was transported during sex, and even people with horns and halos. In the distance, he could even see a commercial airliner and a football stadium. What on earth? Angels and demons? Planes? Stadiums? What the hell is going on here?! ¡°Ahem. Would you mind putting some clothes on?¡± a ten-year-old child asked, breaking the naked man out of his daze. He looked around, saw the people staring at him and turned red. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± he screamed. The kid chuckled and waved his hand before a set of robes materialised. That was when Andrew looked down at the kid¡¯s feet and realised something. H-His feet aren¡¯t on the ground?! ¡°Okay. That should be everyone. I am the Rae Lord Anarak. I¡¯m kinda like a god. I can create and destroy universes at will, control time and space, all that fun stuff. I don¡¯t like getting lumped in with normal gods, because well¡­ They¡¯re kind of weak,¡± the kid laughed. ¡°You¡¯re probably wondering why someone as powerful as me summoned you here, right? That¡¯s simple. We need you guys to beta test a world for us. The physical laws are mostly stable, but we want to make sure that everything is balanced properly. We can¡¯t have anything getting in the way of the Great Game.¡± Anarak explained. ¡°Anarak!¡± Andrew interrupted him. ¡°Hm?¡± Anarak said. ¡°You¡¯re the one who took my parents, aren¡¯t you?¡± he asked. ¡°Your parents? I have no clue, lemme see,¡± Anarak said and he felt someone rummaging through the deepest depths of his mind, as if his deepest secrets were being laid bare to him. Get out of my head! ¡°Ah, those two. Yeah, I did summon them before,¡± Anarak said. You bastard. So, it was you after-all. ¡°Calm down, princess. They¡¯re alive. Who knows for how much longer though,¡± Anarak¡¯s laugh echoed inside his head. Ugh, I hate this kid. Are all the gods like this? ¡°Only half of them,¡± Anarak smirked. Stop reading my mind! ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re not going to make you work for free, well not completely. For those who do well, we have some special prizes in mind, especially for the gods among us,¡± Anarak glanced at the people with haloes in the crowd. ¡°For the gods among us, we will start you on a much, much harder difficulty, how could we possibly lump you in with the mortals? But, the rewards will be far grander. You will even have the chance to become a high god, and gain control of time, space, or fate. Everything you¡¯ve been dreaming about since you ascended,¡± Anarak said. ¡°Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t know about you. Rae Lord Anarak. One of Din¡¯s Seven Kings. And the Fiction Terror. You like creating worlds from fiction for your own amusement,¡± a red-haired man with a red halo floating above his head shouted. ¡°Oh, you know about me? I see, Driima must be gossiping about me. That annoying guy. So¡­ What are you planning to do about it?¡± Anarak replied. ¡°I¡¯m not going along with your games!¡± the haloed man shouted. ¡°Well. Mr. Franra. Minor God of Fire. I¡¯m afraid you don¡¯t have much of a choice, don¡¯t worry though, your sacrifice is all for the greater good, and who knows, maybe you¡¯ll survive,¡± Anarak said. ¡°Greater good my ass,¡± Franra said as he conjured up a sea of flames in the sky. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that, if I was you. Good grief, I¡¯m surrounded by idiots.¡± Anarak said and waved his hand making the sea vanish. ¡°W-what?! What did you do?!¡± Franra shouted. ¡°Nothing big. I simply changed the laws of physics, so your domain abilities no longer work. As much as I¡¯d love to show you what a real domain is, I can¡¯t be killing the people I spent so much time gathering. I¡¯ll restore your powers in time for the great game,¡± Anarak smirked. ¡°Rae lords¡­ What monsters¡­¡± Franra sighed as he summoned a crimson sword. A sonic boom echoed out, and thousands of people clutched their ears as Franra shot towards Anarak at a speed far exceeding the speed of sound. ¡°Anarak!¡± he screamed. Anarak laughed, as Franra slammed into an invisible wall, and furiously struck it with his sword. ¡°Damn. This. Wall.¡± Franra shouted. Anarak smirked, as he conjured up a black sphere and put his hand through it. Another black sphere appeared before Franra¡¯s face, a hand emerged and slapped hard leaving a red mark. ¡°Fucking hell, Anarak. Stop hiding behind that damned invisible wall and fight me,¡± Franra screamed. ¡°This is¡­ too good¡­ I should do this more often¡­¡± Anarak mumbled as he rolled on the ground laughing. ¡°Nah, that would be too easy, not to mention, boring. This way is far more interesting,¡± Anarak said as he got up. He waved his hand and a powerful gust of wind swept up Franra sending him flying. ¡°Damn you!¡± Franra screamed as he shot into the distance, while an old man started jumping up and down in excitement. ¡°W-Was that a¡­ Wormhole¡­? They really do exist¡­ Just wait until the folks back at the lab hear this... This will change everything¡­¡± he shouted and Anarak smirked before saying, ¡°Indeed, wormholes do exist. But, that doesn¡¯t mean your gibberish is right.¡± ¡°What?!¡± the old man shouted. ¡°Oh, nothing important, I¡¯m just saying that you¡¯re pretty clueless about¡­ Well. Everything.¡± Anarak¡¯s smile grew wider. ¡°General relativity?¡± the old man asked. ¡°Complete nonsense. Couldn¡¯t be further from the truth,¡± Anarak smirked. ¡°Quantum mechanics,¡± the old man¡¯s face turned pale and began to back away. ¡°Nooope,¡± Anarak laughed. ¡°S-String t-theory¡­?¡± the old man squeaked and Anarak laughed. ¡°Nope,¡± Anarak said and the old man collapsed onto his knees. ¡°Im-Impossible¡­ This is simply¡­ Impossible¡­ Everything¡­ Is¡­ Wrong¡­? I¡¯ve spent all these years living in a delusion¡­?¡± he muttered. ¡°Quit torturing that poor scientist, he can¡¯t take this, not even Einstein could,¡± a voice rang out from the sky, and a man of mist descended. ¡°Einstein deserved it, that guy kept babbling nonsense about the universe. The only part he got right was about me being an alien. Why are you here anyway, Driima?¡± Anarak asked. ¡°The usual. I need to make sure you aren¡¯t toying with mortals and forgetting your duties. I swear you¡¯re worse than Ragnarok sometimes,¡± Driima said. ¡°Don¡¯t compare me to Ragnarok, you don¡¯t see me flying around transforming normal worlds into silly little fantasy game worlds,¡± Anarak pouted. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not too different from what you usually do,¡± Driima shrugged. ¡°Tch¡­¡± Anarak clicked his tongue and turned to the crowd. ¡°Let Franra be an example to anyone who takes the trials to come lightly. A god? So, what. Gods are little more than bugs in the vast cosmos. Hah, you think your bigshots? Celestial powerhouses? What nonsense. Throw away those thoughts before you get yourselves killed! And you, the humans. Yes, you guys. Your universe is not the entirety of all existence. It¡¯s merely one of many in the Great Rae, that is to say, the multiverse. Some universes have completely different laws than yours. At this very instant, the pocket dimension you¡¯re in is shuttling through the multiverse at a speed beyond your wildest dreams. Even your so called supreme gods would spend hundreds of years travelling the same distance. This is all to deliver you to your final destination, no not that final destination, you nimrods. Not that you won¡¯t end up there, if you aren¡¯t careful. The place you¡¯re going to is a world with a completely set of laws than your own, it might be difficult for you to adapt right away, but I¡¯m confident you¡¯ll be able to do so. If you want to survive, you will have to be extremely cautious. There are dangers you can¡¯t begin to imagine in the world you¡¯re going to. One wrong step could lead to death. Okay? Good,¡± Anarak explained. ¡°Anarak,¡± Jake said. ¡°Hm?¡± he asked. ¡°Will you ever let us go back to Earth?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Perhaps, I won¡¯t make any promises, but it¡¯s a possibility. But, you will have to survive first. And even if you make it back, you might find that your world has completely changed, beyond your wildest dreams,¡± Anarak smirked and a shiver went down everyone¡¯s back. He wouldn¡¯t... That bastard¡­ ¡°Hey, hey. Chill with the profanity. I¡¯m not all bad you know,¡± Anarak smirked. This guy¡­ ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s enough talk. It¡¯s time. We¡¯re going to be transferring you now. Good luck in your adventures. And try not to die,¡± Anarak said with a strange expression on his face, his eyes stopping on a few people for a moment before waving his hand. The earth trembled and everything grew blurry once more as the world faded away. 2: Forest of Death ¡°Okay, we dealt with those guys, are we going to pay Mirdew a visit before leaving?¡± Anarak asked. ¡°Mm, but first. We really should check up on the mortals,¡± Driima replied. ¡°Eh? They should be fine. I sent them to a pretty safe low-level area,¡± Anarak said. ¡°I know, I know. I¡¯m just curious. You know, Anarak. You¡¯ve become really nice these days, you even saved a plane full of people,¡± Driima smiled. ¡°Aw, come on. It¡¯s not like I saved them for their own good or anything,¡± Anarak said with an awkward look and summoned a holographic projection with the wave of a hand. ¡°If you say so, but hey, I¡¯m not complaining, I think it¡¯s worthy of pr- Fuck!¡± Driima screamed as he caught sight of what was on the projection. ----- When they came to, there were billions of lightly pulsating lights rotating in a spiral around them, with sinister cackles echoing out and the group desperately trying to escape. But, no matter how far they ran, the dark mist extended for eternity and the lights were infinite in number. ¡°Another batch! Another batch!¡± a barely audible voice gasped. ¡°I know, I know, Sir Antoin. Ahaha, we¡¯ll finally have a chance, a chance to be reborn once more,¡± a distorted voice said. Jake felt his limbs begin to dissolve and vanish into nothingness. W-What¡¯s happening?! N-NO! He tried to scream, but not even a squeak could emerge, and the sinister eyes drew ever closer, until they were touching. Before Jake could react, it plunged straight into his body and he felt it bore through the deepest recesses of his mind. ¡°Kekeke, finally, a vessel.¡± a ghastly voice said. As the world drew dark and his thoughts vanished, he heard a familiar voice telling them to back off. ----- Jake jerked up in terror and cautiously looked around, but all he could find was an endless field with hundreds of other people chatting away and pointing to the sky. What was that?! -- A dream? Was. Was that just a dream? What was that. I remember being rescued by Anarak, getting a briefing, a god went berserk, and then¡­ And then¡­ Everything went dark. And then¡­ That dark void¡­ And now, this¡­ Is this the world he sent us to? He looked up and saw a cube, a giant glowing crystal, and three moons in the sky. Well, this certainly isn¡¯t Earth. ¡°What the hell is this?! What¡¯s going on?!¡± a man screamed. I¡¯d like to know too. I hope they don¡¯t expect us to slay dragons or something ridiculous like that. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised with how those two were talking about game worlds. This is probably stupid, but let me try something. ¡°Status. Inventory. Menu. Log out. Teleport. Authenticate. Login. Is admin equals true,¡± he shouted. Yeah, I didn¡¯t expect that last one to work, but who knows. Anything¡¯s possible considering this absurd situation. ¡°Oh, come on. Do you really think those would work?¡± a man in his early twenties asked. ¡°Well, those two were talking about game worlds, so it was worth a try. Better than standing here confused as to what the hell is going on, ugh they could have at-least given us an explanation,¡± Jake said. ¡°Well yeah, true. Say. Did you have the dream?¡± he asked. ¡°The dream?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yeah, the one where we were steeped in darkness with those lights¡­ It¡¯s slightly blurry, I feel like I¡¯ve forgotten something really important,¡± he said. ¡°Yes, but¡­ Well, you know. All dreams are like that. You wake up and quickly forgot. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised, if we all had strange dreams with that encounter with Anarak. Considering that we had no clue what was ahead of us, it¡¯s only natural that we had a nightmare or two,¡± Jake explained. ¡°True, I¡¯m probably overthinking it. Ugh, if only I could remember what that was,¡± he clutched his head. ¡°Don¡¯t think too hard on it. Say. Who are you and how did you get mixed up in this mess?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Me? I¡¯m Leonard. Or Leo for short. I was a programmer working on a new algorithm when a strange laugh came out of the speakers. I thought it was a video ad and went to close it, when a hand emerged from the monitor and dragged me in. What about you?¡± Leo asked. ¡°Well, I was a pilot for Hawkins Airlines, when we discovered that the plane was nearly out of fuel, not only that but there was a typhoon. I thought we were all going to die, but before we hit the water, Anarak conjured up a vortex and well¡­ You know how the rest went,¡± Jake said. ¡°Wow, that¡¯s quite some timing. Right when you needed it most, on the same day we were all being abducted. How likely is that? With that sort of luck, you¡¯d win the lottery hundreds of times over¡± Leo said. ¡°It¡¯d be better off winning the lottery than being dragged off to this shithole to be honest,¡± Jake said as a black-haired man in his late twenties walked towards him. He wore a blue suit and stylish glasses. That¡¯s right. He was the very same man who was transported with the podium, the Mayor of Tremence City, Nathanial Donapartes. He was accompanied by fifteen people of various ages and builds and has a grim expression on his face. ¡°Excuse me, you two. As you know, we¡¯ve been transported to this strange world by that so called god, Anarak. We have no clue where we are. We have no clue if this land is safe, and we have no supplies. To figure out what the fuck is going on, we¡¯re all going to have to work together to scout out this place. And we don¡¯t have a moment to waste, we¡¯re in a vulnerable position in the middle of a grassy field. I don¡¯t know what abominations that brat Anarak has left us, but every moment we dawdle is a moment which¡¯ll bring us closer to our deaths. To avoid us all tripping over each other, I¡¯ve persuaded the various members of this group to follow my instructions. You may or may not have heard of me before, I¡¯m the Mayor of Tremence City, Nathanial Donapartes. Not that it means much now,¡± he gave out a bitter laugh. ¡°Yeah, Anarak really made a mess of things. I¡¯m pretty lost here, to be honest, I¡¯m not even sure how to accept all of this, it came pretty out of the blue,¡± Jake said. ¡°I understand, I was like that too when I woke up, it¡¯s a pretty ridiculous situation. Who would ever think they¡¯d get abducted by a god?¡± Nathanial sighed. ¡°It¡¯s not just that, I¡¯ve been thrown from one ridiculous situation to another. Say, are there any others from Flight 5477 here?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Flight 5477. The flight which got transported, right? There are a few people, but it seems like Anarak split us all up when he transported us, there¡¯s only a few hundred of us here,¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°Really? Who?¡± Jake said. ¡°I can¡¯t really remember their names. But, I do recall a woman in a suit, and a man wearing a flight attendant uniform,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Was he really black haired middle-aged guy with big muscles and a long beard?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the one,¡± Nathanial said. Ugh, that coward¡¯s here too. I still remember how he howled in the cockpit. Fucking hell. I understand that we were under a lot of pressure, but did he have to do that? ¡°Ugh, yeah. I definitely know him. A little too well,¡± Jake grimaced. ¡°Did he do something?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Let¡¯s just say that he doesn¡¯t handle pressure well. At all. Before we got transported, we were in a plane in a typhoon with next to no fuel hurtling towards the ground before Anarak transported us,¡± Jake explained. ¡°Ah, I understand. I¡¯ll have the others keep an eye on him then. I don¡¯t want any trouble. I¡¯d like to catch up with you later as to what exactly happened on that plane, but we really are in a dire situation, so we can¡¯t dawdle for too long,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°I understand, what happened to those people with haloes?¡± Jake asked. ¡°The gods? We didn¡¯t get any, they were probably transported somewhere else. If I had to guess, Anarak probably has a special surprise for them. And well, what else can I say. It¡¯s a shame, as they would have been a huge asset to us, but there¡¯s little we can do about it,¡± Nathanial grimaced. ¡°Okay, if that¡¯s a-¡± Nathanial was interrupted by a high pitch squeal. ¡°What the fuck was that?!¡± he screamed as he and the other fifteen drew their pistols.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Damn it all, why did I have to be abducted on a plane? If I was in New York, I¡¯d have one too. Who knows what sorts of monsters Anarak¡¯s lined up for us,¡± Jake and Leo scampered after them, quickly arriving at the edge of the human wall. Before them were dozens of green corpses with a green liquid squirting out and a trembling man holding a shotgun. ¡°What happened?!¡± Nathanial screamed. ¡°These creatures came out of nowhere, armed with knives. I tried to reason with them, but they wouldn¡¯t stop and in the end, I had no choice but to shoot them,¡± he said as held back the urge to throw up. ¡°Damn it all, of all the things, why did it have to be them. It could have been wolves or bears or even people. That would have been more reasonable, but why the fuck did it have to be fucking goblins? Fucking Anarak, is he toying with us?¡± Nathanial screamed. ¡°Right. This is exactly what I warned you guys about, this world is dangerous. There are countless creatures like this who are out to kill us. If you don¡¯t pull yourselves together, we will all die. Stop staring at the sky or mumbling about stupid dreams and get back to reality. I don¡¯t know how many of these things there are out there, but what I do know is that a few men with shotguns are not going to cut it when the horde comes for us. We need to build up a barricade to stop them, for that we¡¯re going to need a heck of a lot of wood. We need to find a source of food, water, and wood. We might run into those guys again, but are we really going to sit here waiting to die? Are we going to be scared of their scrawny green asses? Hell no. Who¡¯s with me?¡± Nathanial shouted and the crowd chanted his name and cheered. ¡°Hell yeah! We¡¯re not going to let those pieces of crap push us around. A giant crystal in the sky? A cube? Who gives a toss about that, they could stick a giant naked mannequin in the sky for all I care,¡± a man screamed and the group followed Nathanial and his merry men through the endless plains. Wow, he really has a way with words, I can see how he ended up as the Mayor of Tremence City. He is right though, this is no time to be in a daze or to talk about silly dreams. I had a suspicion we might be attacked, but to think Anarak would send goblins. And that was only the first wave, who knows what other abominations there are out there. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised, if there was a real-life dragon. ¡°Jake. Jake.¡± A voice called and Jake snapped out of his inner monologue. ¡°Hm? What is it?¡± Jake asked. ¡°You saw how there were goblins, right?¡± Leo asked. ¡°Well yeah, what, do you think there¡¯s going to be more fantasy beasts?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Well, obvious. But that¡¯s not all. Assuming that Anarak¡¯s been playing a load of videos, I¡¯d assume this is some sort of newbie area. Like a tutorial area for us to come to grips with the new world, he wouldn¡¯t want his valuable testers dying after-all,¡± Leo said. ¡°Well, that makes sense, better than fighting a fucking dragon,¡± Jake sighed in relief. ¡°If this follows the patterns of most games, and if Anarak isn¡¯t a complete jerk, then the only way to survive after the tutorial is over is to make sure we¡¯re strong enough to do so. This means familiarising ourselves with combat and seeing what exactly these ¡®rules¡¯ Anarak put in place are,¡± Leo explained. ¡°You don¡¯t think there¡¯s a level system and that we¡¯ll get experience by killing goblins?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Maybe, I doubt it would be that obvious though,¡± Leo said. ¡°I agree, I see no harm in folks racking up some combat experience, as-long as you don¡¯t ask them to go hand-to-hand against a bear. Silly notions of RPG mechanics aside, we could all do with the experience, especially since our ammunition is finite. We¡¯re going to need weapons. A lot of weapons. Luckily, we have a source of weapons, the little daggers the goblins run around with. Not only that, but that means that their civilisation is capable of forging metals and there¡¯s a vein of ore nearby. However. We have no clue how many of them there are, and if they¡¯re all tiny. For all we know, they could have ten foot giants back at the village. Let¡¯s not look for trouble, if we can help it. Anyway, we need to stay alert. No time for talk.¡± Nathanial said as a forest came into view. He stood on guard as a white hawk with glittering claws flew towards the group, several men raised their guns, and just as he was about to give the order, the bird suddenly shot to the skies over the group and a large clop of poo fell on Nathanial¡¯s head. ¡°Fucking birds!¡± Nathanial screamed. He quickly pulled his gun out and noticed that the bird was already gone. Jake sighed and turned away. Well¡­ That happened¡­ ¡°Okay, ignore that little incident. Stay alert, we¡¯re going in,¡± Nathanial said, the group proceeded into the forest and discovered how truly vast it was. The trees were thick enough for three people to wrap their arms around it and seemed to reach the sky. Oh great, this is going to be a monster paradise¡­ Nathanial constantly looked up for monsters, while Jake wielded a tray from the plane, which he convinced a passenger to part with. A tray. A fucking tray. Couldn¡¯t you give me a real weapon, Anarak? Leo was no better, as he was carrying a keyboard which he grabbed onto while he was being dragged into the computer. Several people in the crowd sighed at the makeshift weapons, and yet understood that it was their best chance at making it out of here alive. Nathanial made a hand sign to the rest signalling them to slow down, when he was suddenly dragged up by a net, dropping his gun, and flailed around trying to escape. Dozens of goblins armed with spears poked their heads out from behind the trees. These guys again¡­ They grunted and snorted at each other as if speaking some unintelligible language. One with a bird feather hat and a horn blew hard. As the low octave echoed out, several dozen goblin archers up on the trees aimed their bows. The two sides stared at each for several seconds, when the net suddenly snapped and Nathanial fell to the ground. He grabbed his gun and shouted, ¡°We come in peace!¡± The goblin with the feather hat grunted and snorted in response. Nathanial tried several gestures to convince them of his good will, but they responded with ever more hostile grunts and snorts, even jumping up and down. Ugh, we all know how this is going to end¡­ Nathanial opened his mouth once more, but he was greeted by countless arrows spearing several dozen people who responded by opening fire on their attackers. The spear wielders also closed in, and Jake held one off with his trusty tray. He grabbed hold of the spear, kicked the scrawny goblin a few times in the crotch, and took hold while it reeled in pain. To his side, a goblin collapsed as Leo smashed its head with a keyboard. Countless goblins fell from the trees, as countless bullets hit them, and Jake finished off his adversary with their very own weapon, while wielding his tray as a shield. The creature gave out an unearthly shriek as it went through its eyeball and destroyed its brain. Ugh, disgusting. I never thought I would have to do this crap¡­ He held back the urge to throw up, and thrusted his spear towards another fiend, deflecting its shield and severely wounding it. The feather cap goblin turned to run, but before it could move a single step, a bullet hit it in the back and collapsed. Jake looked around and saw that countless green corpses surrounded him. Several people had arrows lodged in their arms, and various cuts, but they were otherwise unharmed. That went surprisingly well¡­ I expected one or two of them to hit the bucket or be severely injured. Several doctors stepped up and started treating their injuries with a gun wielding group in the outer ring standing guard over them. Jake looked down at the corpses once more, when he heard a strange pitter patter. Huh? He looked around, but couldn¡¯t think of anything which would make such a noise. Am I imagining things¡­? No¡­ But I don¡¯t see anything¡­ He was about to brush it off, when Nathanial shouted, ¡°Look up! Attack!¡± Up above them were a dozen green man-sized spiders who were camouflaged by the foliage. Shit, the battle from earlier must have drawn their attention. He looked at the green blood and thought, Could it be the blood? The spiders charged down, and were greeted by dozens of bullets. They started dropping down as they accumulated bullets, but were hardy enough for three of them to reach the bottom. How the hell do the goblins survive in a place like this?! One of the spiders grabbed one of the men being treated and crushed his ribs with its pincers. ¡°Damn you!¡± Nathanial screamed as several bullets went into the side of the spider and it collapsed. Jake held out his tray shield as a giant leg smashed into it sending him, he thrusted his spear into one of its compound eyes and it shrieked in pain. It bent back ready to lunge forward when several bullets followed the spear into the eye and finished it off. A thin man in his thirties danced around dodging the third spider¡¯s thrusts as dozens of bullets flew into it and brought its arachnoid life to an end. Did he train in martial arts or something? Or as a dance instructor? ¡°Damn it all, we already have a casualty, I never thought they would come from above so silently, I didn¡¯t notice them at all until they were right above us,¡± Nathanial sighed and looked down at the injuries. ¡°I probably don¡¯t need to ask, but¡­ Is there anything we can do for him?¡± Nathanial asked a doctor. ¡°I¡¯m afraid to say that even if we were back on Earth, we wouldn¡¯t be able to treat this wound, let alone out here in a forest in this god forsaken world Anarak dropped us on,¡± the old man said. ¡°I see¡­ ¡°Nathanial said as the blood soaked the ground and the man breathed his last breath. ¡°The least we can do is bury him, does anyone have a shovel?¡± Nathanial asked and the other shook his head. ¡°Ugh, can¡¯t we do that little?¡± Nathanial sighed, as he kicked bits of loose mud and dirt onto the corpse. The others joined him and before long, a small mound of dirt replaced the rotting corpse before them. ¡°Let¡¯s go, I don¡¯t want to stay in this forest another moment, there must be somewhere else we can go outside this hell. Who knows what sorts of abominations there are deeper in the forest. At the very least, we won¡¯t be sneak attacked from above outside, damn those spiders,¡± Nathanial led the group back towards the forest entrance. Nathanial constantly looked-for enemies, especially ones directly above, while Jake heard a strange sound from below. Spiders from above¡­ What if¡­ ¡°Nathanial! Below!¡± Jake shouted and Nathanial shouted, ¡°Quick. To the exit. Run. They¡¯re coming from below!¡± The ground suddenly burst in-front of Nathanial as a giant worm shot up with sharp teeth capable of swallowing a man. It shot towards him and Nathanial jumped to the side to dodge barely missing it. He turned and fired off his pistol while moving away from it. Several other bullets joined his in hitting the worm, but they could do little against its giant frame. Jake took the opportunity to stab the worm with the spear and part of its skin turned black where it hit. Could it be¡­ The goblins¡­ ¡°Nathanial. The spears. Goblins. Poison.¡± Jake shouted and Nathanial got it. ¡°Attack it with the goblin spears!¡± Nathanial shouted and several spear wielders rushed in as it went back into the ground preparing for another ambush. But, before it could fully enter, several spears entered its abdomen and it collapsed on the spot. ¡°It¡¯s down. Quick run!¡± Nathanial shouted and the group sprinted for the entrance which was coming into view. They crossed the boundary back onto the field and breathed heavily as they looked back at the peaceful forest which now looked like the gates to hell. ¡°Finally, we¡¯re finally out of that hellhole!¡± Nathanial shouted and they sighed in relief. What are we going to do now though? If we can¡¯t enter the forest, then how do we get wood? ¡°I think we¡¯re going to postpone the gathering wood part, until we can handle those¡­ things¡­ One thing we do know though is that the goblins despite their weak frames are able to survive in this hellhole, this is in part due to the poison they apply to their spears. However, there must another reason for this, as these worms would likely kill a dozen goblins before they accumulate enough damage on it. And let¡¯s not even talk about those spiders, those things could snatch a goblin away before they even realise it,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°You mean¡­ Another type of goblin, right?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Exactly, I hope we never have the luck of running into them, but I¡¯m guessing that these are merely scouts, they noticed our group and sent people to scout us back and collect data,¡± Nathanial said. A different type of goblin¡­ Something with the reflexes needed to handle with worms and the senses needed to deal with spiders¡­ What type of monster would that be¡­ ¡°Nathanial, there¡¯s movement at the entrance!¡± a man shouted. ¡°What?!¡± Nathanial gasped as a dozen goblins riding spiders and wielding spears emerged. Behind them were dozens more goblins wielding spears and several archers. Well¡­ That explains the spider part¡­ It¡¯s their fucking mounts¡­ 3: Magic? Cats? What Before the Battle in the Forest ¡°Your Excellency, tens of thousands of newbies have appeared, this is the perfect chance for our forces to hijack their bodies and descend into the Mortal Realm,¡± a phantasmal man said. ¡°Yes, indeed. It¡¯s a shame the barrier prevents me from descending onto that planet. The most I can do is puncture a hole for the weaker souls to pass through. Oh well, I doubt those weak vessels could hold me anyway,¡± a ghostly woman on a ghastly throne said. ¡°I agree, those weak vessels aren¡¯t worthy of you,¡± the man replied and the ghostly realm began to tremble a nearly infinite amount of ghostly energy gathered into a giant ball. ¡°Break!¡± she screamed and it collided with an invisible wall. Her body began to fade in and out of existence as the collision grew ever bigger, before a small crack opened and the energy faded away. ¡°Go forth!¡± she shouted and an endless number of lights poured into the crack. In a mysterious murky world Haha, we¡¯ve already taken several batches of newbies, things are going more smoothly than I thought it would. It¡¯s such a shame these weaklings aren¡¯t powerful enough to hold me. He looked down at the little bugs running around confused trying to flee from the lights and many ghastly beings cackled at their futile efforts before piercing into their bodies. But, just as he thought everything would go fine, a powerful ray of light destroyed the dark mists, and a giant face formed in the sky. T-That¡¯s¡­ Rae Lord Anarak! Why¡¯s he here?! The Rae Lords never interfere¡­ ¡°What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing?! Can¡¯t you leave the newbies alone for two days without causing trouble?!¡± The voice boomed and a force tore the struggling spectres out of their new homes. Why¡­ Why?! The struggling mortals began to vanish one by one as the murky world began to crack and rumble before completely breaking apart. Damn you, Anarak! Do you know how much energy we spent on this dreamland?! Outside the Forest of Death ¡°Damn it all,¡± Nathanial muttered and a cold chill went down Jake¡¯s back as the convoy of goblins marched towards them. The group drew their weapons, ready to fire. Among the crowds of goblins, Jake caught site of two six foot muscular goblins on either side of a smaller feather capped goblin. The muscular goblins were carrying a pair of giant bats, while the feather capped goblin was carrying a long wooden stick with a red feather at the end. He¡¯s probably the leader. And damn, they do have big goblins too, Nathanial was right. The feather capped goblin started snorting and grunting before waving it¡¯s stick, shockingly enough, a small ball of fire went flying towards Nathanial who jumped to the side, but still got hit by the fireball on the arm. F-Fireballs?! They can use magic?! What?! The fireball was followed by a small barrage of arrows, which the group countered with their bullets, and the spider cavalry quickly charged in with the spearmen hidden behind to protect them from the hail of bullets. One spearman fell off his spider, but the spider continued towards the group, and arrived in-front of Jake. He blocked the swipe of its leg with his tray and was sent flying back into the group before being cushioned by a short fat man. Ugh¡­ Thanks. Damned spiders. The spider charged after Jake and several spear goblins jumped out from behind, attacking several gun wielders, but they were intercepted by several people from the crowds who bashed them with suitcases and business laptops. Several books and vases went flying into the side of the ownerless spider, distracting it from Jake giving him the opportunity to plunge his spear into its compound eye sending it shrieking backwards in pain. As it regained its bearings, several bullets went into its brain ending its reign of terror. I. Hate. Spiders. Nathanial fired some shots off at the feather cap leader, but one brute jumped forward to intercept, resulting in an injury on his arm, while the other shot towards him using a few spearmen as cover. One of the men beside him pulled out a long rocket, fireworks to be exact, and lit the end sending it flying into the incoming spearmen. It exploded and they jumped back in shock. He took advantage of their disorientation to fire off a couple of shots and they collapsed to the ground revealing the brute. The brute smashed his club at Nathanial, but was caught by a muscular man in his late twenties, a man who goes by the name of Gerry. Gerry struck several pressure points on the goblin¡¯s arm making it release the club and quickly restrained it. It shrieked as he knocked it unconscious. The feather cap leader turned to run, with the brute covering his exit. ¡°Stop him. Or he¡¯ll tell the village about us!¡± Nathanial shouted and a hail of bullets shot his way dropping the brute. But, it was too late, as he made it into the forest and it endless dangers. Nathanial sighed as he looked upon the aftermath of the battle. Several dozen injured, and some of those injuries would take weeks to recover. It was a miracle no one died, but he knew that if they kept having battles like this, then it would only be a matter of time before the second fatality came. Damned goblins, what did we ever do to them?! We were just minding our own business and they started sending wave after wave to kill us! ¡°As much as I¡¯d like to allow you time to rest, we need to back the hell away from the forest. Quickly!¡± Nathanial urged and the group moved away from the forest, with those who were unable to walk being carried by the others. ¡°Nathanial, what was that?¡± Jake asked. ¡°The spiders? Yeah, I was shocked too. To think they¡¯ve actually tamed those spiders and have them as mounts. It certainly explains a lot. Think about it. How do they avoid the worms? We¡¯ve been thinking about it the wrong way. They don¡¯t have settlements on the ground, but up in the trees. Not only that, but the spiders barely produce any sounds, even when moving on the ground. If the worms find prey via vibrations, then these are the perfect mounts, especially with their speed.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°Not just that but¡­¡± Jake began. ¡°The fireballs, right?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Jake said. ¡°I have no clue about that, absolutely no clue. I¡¯m not even going to try to apply logic to this one, it¡¯s pointless. But. If all the goblins were able to use that power, then wouldn¡¯t they have done it the first time we ran into them on the plains. Or when the first spearmen appeared in the forest?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°That¡¯s true, why fire arrows, if they have a far more potent weapon?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Exactly, I reckon that only a small portion of the goblins can use that power, and this portion is highly revered by the others. You saw how it had guards who didn¡¯t spare an effort to protect it, even at the cost of their lives, right?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Mm,¡± Jake replied. ¡°Exactly. For each one which dies, they have one less at their disposal, not only that, but their numbers are likely too few to have a large impact on a battle in comparison to the regular troops,¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°I see, so it¡¯s like a status symbol then. I¡¯m curious though¡­ How did they get that power?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Who knows, we¡¯ve only been here for half a day, and a good portion of that has been spent running around confused,¡± Nathanial shrugged and Jake sighed. ¡°Do you think¡­ That we might be able to use that power?¡± Leo asked. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t count on it, but it¡¯s not impossible. I doubt Anarak would send us here without some insurance, but who knows, maybe he wants to laugh as we all run to our deaths. Even if we could, I wouldn¡¯t even know where to start, am I supposed to meditate? Find an ancient tome of power? Cut open a feather cap and take out a magic crystal? Yeah, the last one¡¯s a little too ridiculous. The thing is. It¡¯s pointless for us to think about that right now, we still need to figure out what we¡¯re going to eat and drink. Our supplies can only last for so long,¡± Nathanial sighed and looked at the area ahead discovering a group of rabbits. ¡°How ironic, we go out looking for food, and food comes to the place we started at. I need you all to catch these rabbits, built a pen out of whatever makeshift materials you can find. Twigs will do, if you really can¡¯t find anything,¡± Nathanial ordered. Several men and women ran out laying down twigs, crudely raising dirt mounds, and dropping down bits of furniture which were transported but which they couldn¡¯t carry into the forest to build a small pen. Minutes later, they herded up the rabbits and tossed them in, while the gun wielders patrolled the perimeter of the group. Nathanial sat at a small desk drawing out a crude map. Not enough information. All we know is that there¡¯s a forest over there. Whatever direction over there is. If we can trust the direction of the ¡°Sun¡±, then that would East. The North, South, and West are completely unexplored.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The rabbits are great and all, but we really need a source of water before we all get dehydrated. We can go without food for a bit, but we definitely need that water, or we¡¯re going to start dropping off like flies and resorting to all sorts of barbaric acts to survive. ¡°Gerry.¡± Nathanial called out. ¡°Yes?¡± Gerry asked. ¡°I¡¯m letting everyone rest for a few hours, but we really do need to get moving again soon, even if it means taking the rabbits with us in our hands. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that a few of us are heavily injured, I would just take the whole group with us to find water,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Agreed, we¡¯ve only just got here and we already had a man die, the chances of survival are just too low without all of us there,¡± Gerry sighed. ¡°Yeah¡­ Unfortunately, I have little choice in the matter. I need you, Jake, and a few others to form a small scout party. If you see any sign of danger, especially the goblins, then run. Get the hell out of there. And try to lay low as much as possible. Most of our people will remain here to take care of the wounded, I have a feeling the goblins are going to be back with a vengeance, not to mention, that a large group like ours will be seen from a mile away, if we all march out,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°I understand.¡± Gerry said as he walked away. Nathanial clutched his head and sighed. I miss Tremence City. All the backstabbing politicians in the world can¡¯t compare to this hellhole of a world. ----- Waves of goblins attacking, each one stronger than the previous one. I don¡¯t know if we can survive, if it goes on like this¡­ What¡¯s next? A squad of giant goblins, fire breathing feather caps, and an army of spiders? ¡°Jake.¡± A voice rang out and Jake turned around. Gerry? ¡°Nathanial wants us to form a group of scouts to go out and explore the surrounding area. There¡¯s no telling what¡¯s out there, we might even find dragons. Want to come?¡± Gerry asked. ¡°Sure.¡± Jake replied and the two walked off. ¡°Say, Gerry. What did you do before¡­ well¡­ you were transported? You seem to be very adept at hand-to-hand combat.¡± Jake asked. ¡°I was in the police force for a few years, we received training in subduing criminals. I¡¯ve dealt with hundreds of club wielding criminals, so a couple of overgrown goblins aren¡¯t much of a challenge. I¡¯d be more terrified, if they had guns. I was out on my rounds one day when a beam of light descended and I found myself in-front of Anarak.¡± Gerry explained. ¡°Ah. For me, I was flying a plane, nearly crashed, and well¡­ Anarak snatched up the whole thing,¡± Jake said. ¡°Ah, the plane. I¡¯ve heard about that, the one with the demented flight attendant?¡± Gerry asked. ¡°Yes. That flight.¡± Jake shuddered. That lunatic. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised, if he wet himself in-front of a spider¡­ ¡°Yeah¡­ People like that are well¡­ Mm, I¡¯ve dealt with those sorts before¡­¡± Gerry said. Jake was about to speak when he was interrupted by something utterly horrifying, one of the scouts was walking towards him and next to him was¡­ Brandon, the middle-aged flight attendant with a muscular build and a long black beard. Oh no¡­ Don¡¯t tell me. I have to work with him? No. Please. No. Not him. Of all the people, why did you have to pick him?! Noooo! Gerry had a strange look at his face, while Jake scowled. Brandon was slightly embarrassed and broke things up with a cough, ¡°Sorry about the previous incident, Jake. We were hurtling to our deaths, so I panicked a little. But hey, it all worked out in the end. My prayers got the attention of a god.¡± Y-You prayed to Anarak? Why did you pick him? Why on earth would you pick him? The guy who randomly abducts people for whatever the hell he wants us to do here. Why don¡¯t you pray to an archdemon why you¡¯re at it?! ¡°Urm, so. These two are also members of our team, Brandom and Tom. Two of you already know each other, so I¡¯ll skip over to Tom. Tom meet Jake. Jake meet Tom. Tom used to be a gymnastics instructor who competed in the Olympics. During one of the live games in-front of an international audience, he mysteriously vanished, we all know who¡¯s responsible for that,¡± Gerry said. ¡°Hey there,¡± a thin man in his thirties said. The very same man who danced around dodging a spider¡¯s attacks in the Forest of Death, Tom. Not a martial artist or a dance instructor but¡­ An Olympic Gymnast?! ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking, I did a lot of dancing when I was younger to work out my joints and increase my flexibility,¡± Tom said. ¡°Ah,¡± Jake said. ¡°As for Jake, he was the pilot of the very same plane as Brandon,¡± Gerry explained and Brandon had a strange look on his face as he recalled that incident. Yeah, I hope you¡¯re ashamed after you pulled that shit, we nearly died thanks to you! Gerry sighed as he watched Jake glare at Brandom, ¡°Okay. Okay. That¡¯s enough. This time, we¡¯re going to be going to the ¡®West¡¯, in other words, the opposite direction as that hellhole of a forest. We have no clue what¡¯s out there, so we need to be extremely alert.¡± Brandon grunted to show his approval and Gerry waved another three over. ¡°This is Jennifer, Wang Lu, and Vladimir. Jennifer was part of the army, before getting transported during a mission. Wang Lu was the owner of a large supermarket chain. And Vladimir was a tax collector working for the Russian Government.¡± Gerry explained. Jennifer had long black hair, a small cut on her arm from fighting spiders in the earlier battle, and wore a military uniform and a rifle on her back. While Wang Lu was a bald man in his mid-thirties, and was carrying a long spear. As for Vladimir, he had mid-length brown hair, a scar running down his nose, a long spear, and a tazer which he used to immobilize several goblin spearmen during the earlier battle. ¡°I¡¯ll give you time to get acquainted on the way out, let¡¯s move.¡± Gerry said before walking towards the outer perimeter with the scouts. ¡°As you heard, I was part of the army before I was abducted. I was infiltrating a compound with the rest of my squad, when we burst into a room and discovered a small child. That child turned out to be our good friend¡­ Anarak. He waved his hand and my surroundings shattered like a mirror revealing that strange grassy plain we were all on earlier before we were transported to this hell hole,¡± she explained. ¡°Ah, I was a pi-¡± Jake began. ¡°A pilot on a plane which got swept up in a typhoon next to Brandon who¡­ Let¡¯s say¡­ Cracked under the pressure?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes, how did you know?¡± Jake asked. ¡°I heard you talking about it earlier,¡± she replied. ¡°Ah, I see. What about you, Wang Lu?¡± Jake asked. ¡°I was having a meeting with one of my suppliers, ugh the guy wanted to rob me blind. Anyway. We were about to shake on the deal when the room started shaking and we were both enveloped by a holy light. We appeared on that field with the rest of you, but I ended up getting separated from the guy after we got send to this hellhole. The sooner I leave this shithole, the better, damned Anarak.¡± Wang Lu said. ¡°Yeah¡­ Especially with those goblins around, not a moment of peace,¡± Jake sighed. ¡°What about you, Vladimir?¡± Jake asked. ¡°I was out on my rounds, hunting down people who refused to pay their taxes. I ended up walking in on a gang who pulled a dozen semiautomatic machine guns on me, before I got mowed down, a golden light enveloped me and blocked the bullets. The gangsters knelt down as if I was some sort of God and handed over a couple briefcases full of money, but before I could take it back, I got transported to the same place as you all. I still have the two briefcases, but the money is a little useless to us here,¡± Vladimir explained. Jake nodded and Gerry turned to wave at the perimeter guards. ¡°Ah, Gerry. Going out? Be careful out there!¡± a guard warned. ¡°I will,¡± Gerry nodded. He took the last step out of the base and a heavy pressure descended upon the group as they became extremely alert, constantly looking out for threats. A bush suddenly rustled in-front of them, and Gerry jumped into a battle stance, and then a small rabbit ran out and he sighed. I guess, we could catch a few on the way back, if we¡¯re not being pursued by goblins or dragons or whatever else. Jake turned to Brandon who was making psst sounds and pointing in a certain direction. He turned to look and saw¡­ A tree. Not a colossal tree reaching the sky. Not a vast forest. But, a singular tree. That should be enough for a campfire to keep everyone warm when the night comes, perhaps even enough to begin work on the stockade. I¡¯ll keep it in mind for when we come back. As they ventured further and further, the trees became more and more numerous, to the point that dozens could be seen around them after a certain point. Jake turned to Jennifer who nodded, and the group moved into a formation where they hid behind the trees before moving to the next tree before them. Not only were the trees more numerous, but so were the rabbits, there were far more of them than back at camp or in its immediate surrounding area. Dozens of times more. Hundreds of times more. Well, at-least we won¡¯t have to worry about food, this should be enough to last everyone a few days. They shot from tree to tree, watching for enemies, but there wasn¡¯t a single goblin to be found, only fireflies and rabbits. Something¡¯s wrong here. It¡¯s too safe. How could a place like this exist? Jake was about to let down his guard when he saw a tree larger and thicker than all the other trees in the middle of the grove. Several squirrels ran down the trunk and dozens of rabbits gathered around it, and behind it was, a small pond. Water. We finally found water. It¡¯s a little on the dirty side, but hey, at-least we won¡¯t die of thirst, haha. Brandon jumped up and down in excitement prompting Gerry to do several hand signs telling him to stop at once, and he quickly settled down, but you could still see his excitement from the goofy smile on his face. This guy is going to get us all killed¡­ It would be one thing, if we had the main group here with dozens of gunmen ready to fire at a moment¡¯s notice, but we don¡¯t. It¡¯s just me, an idiot, and several others. Wait. What¡¯s that? Jake squinted his eye at the small dark object, and it turned out that he¡¯s mind wasn¡¯t playing tricks on him, there was indeed a small tabby cat lapping up the water. Phew, just a cat. Not a dragon or some other monstrosity. Strange though, it seems awfully similar to a normal housecat, you¡¯d think I¡¯d be more¡­ Feral looking? He kept his eye on it, and it turned its head to look at him, when their eyes locked, he felt an immense pressure for a moment, before it turned around and playfully chased after a rabbit. W-What was that?! He stood there in shock for a moment, before being interrupted by a small pebble, he turned and saw Brandon who was relaying a hand sign from the others. Ah yes, I shouldn¡¯t let myself get distracted. But damn. What¡¯s was that? That pressure? Something¡¯s not quite right about that cat¡­ He turned to look at it once more, but it completely vanished, he couldn¡¯t find any trace of it. He shrugged and continued hopping from tree to tree towards the giant tree. He quickly arrived next to the tree, when suddenly a wicked smile appeared on its trunk and a branch reached out to grab him. Jake jumped back to dodge, but more branches surrounded him like snakes. Jennifer fired at the tree, but it had little effect on its thick trunk, and they grabbed Jake raising him towards the sinister mouth. N-No, I won¡¯t be eaten by a fucking tree! Jake stabbed at it with his spear, but it barely left a mark, and was about to be lowered into its mouth when he was suddenly dropped on the ground. What the¡­?! Off in the distance, the cat appeared once more, and the tree¡¯s face distorted as it stood on guard against it. It walked ever closer and closer. The tree became more and more panicked, until the cat was right next to it, sat down and started urinating on it. Jake saw his chance and took the opportunity to run far away towards the other scouts. What on earth is that cat?! That ent was absolutely terrified of it, and the ent happens to be one of the most horrifying things we¡¯ve run into so far. Just imagine being in a forest of them. He quickly rendezvoused with the others who took the long way around the ent to the pond. Brandon stepped forward with an empty water bottle and was sweating like crazy. He lowered the bottle into the water, readied himself for a quick escape and quickly jumped back with it. Jennifer gave several hand signs they rehearsed earlier and Jake at once understood her intentions. Time to go back, we¡¯ve found what we were looking for. We could go further, but the chances of survival will drop off a cliff. If there¡¯s one ent here, then who knows how many there are further out, I really don¡¯t want to face a pack of them without any backup, it¡¯s a miracle the cat stepped in to help. I¡¯d love to light the bastards on fire, but I don¡¯t have anything for that. No wonder the goblins value their magicians so highly. Jake turned back towards the camp with the rest, jumping from tree to tree to keep a low profile, just in case they encountered a formidable beast on the way back. 4: A Fairy Dangerous Situation In the depths of a dark citadel with pulsating lights, runes inscribed on the walls, and robots patrolling the corridors, Anarak and Driima casually walked along as if they owned the place. They came to a halt in-front of a couple of guards who had two halos floating above their heads. ¡°Y-You two are¡­ Rae lords Anarak and Driima?!¡± they shouted. ¡°Mm, that¡¯s us, where¡¯s Mirdew?¡± Anarak asked. ¡°Rae Lord Mirdew¡¯s in his workship,¡± the guard on the left said. ¡°Ah, okay.¡± Anarak said before vanishing with a single step along with Driima and appearing within a giant room filled with various pieces of technology. Stone age technology. Roman era technology. Classical era territory. Modern era technology. The technology of a vast intergalactic empire, this workshop had it all, it even had magic based technology gathered from a few¡­ peculiar worlds. In the middle was a black-haired man in his mid-twenties wearing a long robe with numbers and lines inscribed in it. He stared at a smartphone and examined it closely. ¡°How¡­ Primitive¡­ And yet, unusual.¡± he remarked before pressing down on the power button making the operating system logo pop-up along with the logo of the manufacturer. ¡°A picture of a penguin, how nice. Let¡¯s see here. Hm. What is this, an ad? The latest in penis enhancement technology, is this what every Terran is preoccupied over? Does every Terran even have a penis?¡± he scratched his head and clicked on another icon. ¡°An AI assistant, you say? Okay, I just press this button. Who is Lord Ragnarok is?¡± he asked. ¡°No search results for search term ¡®Who assed Nagnarok?¡¯,¡± a voice rang out. ¡°They call this an AI? What a pile of garbage, it can¡¯t even understand what I¡¯m saying. Ugh¡­¡± The man sighed and turned to Anarak and Driima. ¡°Ah, Anarak. Driima. What brings you here?¡± he asked. ¡°Not much, Mirdew. We were just in the area and decided to pay you a visit,¡± Anarak explained. ¡°Ah, how¡¯s things going with the fifth game on your end?¡± Mirdew asked. ¡°Slow as always. Ragnarok¡¯s bringing several parallel earths into alignment, so the Terrans aren¡¯t so tightly bound by their universe¡¯s laws. Unfortunately, things were thrown way out of wack after the incident with the World Eater,¡± Anarak sighed. ¡°Yeah. Those Nillians are trouble. Even the Tecrati have trouble with them,¡± Mirdew sighed. ¡°Tecrati¡­ Those technology maniacs¡­¡± Anarak mumbled. ¡°They aren¡¯t too bad, although they¡¯re a little too¡­ Group minded,¡± Mirdew said. ¡°Not too bad? You only say that because you love technology yourself, but I find them¡­ Frightening. Do you know how many Rae Lords they¡¯ve killed?¡± Anarak shuddered. Mirdew shrugged and said, ¡°What¡¯s scary about the Tecrati is not their technology, but their philosophies. They don¡¯t believe in investing vast amounts of resources into creating a small number of gods. They¡¯d rather elevate everyone, even if it means making a greater sacrifice. As a Tecrati Leader once said, they have no use for false gods. True progress can only come by lifting up everyone. And it¡¯s not like their policy doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯m sure you remember the incident with their 41st fleet, right?¡± Anarak shuddered once he heard that name and quickly tried to change the topic, ¡°Three rae lords died... Urm, anyway, what are you up-to exactly? I see you fiddling around with a mobile phone?¡± ¡°Ah, this thing? One of the information age Terrans you transported brought it. I wanted to see if I could retrofit it to get it to work with our systems, it¡¯ll be a little on the tricky side, but I would like to give them an interface they¡¯re familiar with,¡± Mirdew explained. ¡°Can¡¯t you just give them the usual?¡± Anarak scowled. You just want an excuse to play with the thing. ¡°Haha, no. The neural interfaces would drive them crazy, I¡¯d like to wean them onto something more familiar first before moving onto that,¡± Mirdew chuckled. ¡°Ah. Of course, I forgot about that. I¡¯m used to races being able to pick it up really easily, those whatchacallits really are behind, aren¡¯t they?¡± Anarak laughed. ¡°In more ways than one,¡± Mirdew smirked. ----- Jake shot from one tree to the next, while staying extremely alert, one thing he noticed was an increase in the number of fireflies. The ¡°Sun¡± is nearly under the horizon, it¡¯s nearly night-time, I guess. I hope the goblins don¡¯t attack, it¡¯s bad enough fighting them during the day. Jennifer gave a hand sign, and they moved out from behind the trees and jumped to the next set over and over, until they made it out of the grove. Jake glanced at the first tree they ran into on this journey. Nearly there. Just a bit more and we¡¯ll be back at the camp. I can¡¯t believe it, but this journey was more stressful than when we fought giant spiders and goblins, probably because I had everyone else backing me up. He caught sight of a couple of rabbits running around, Should I pick them up? No. I should report back first. Who knows what might happen, if I bend over to pick them up, a monster might take the chance to attack us. He sighed and arrived at the outer perimeter with the others. ¡°Ah, you guys are back, did you find anything?¡± a guard asked. ¡°We don¡¯t need to worry about food and water, there¡¯s a little trouble with monsters, but¡­ Well, what did we expect in this godforsaken shithole.¡± Gerry said. ¡°Fair enough, it¡¯s great to hear that I won¡¯t be starving to death though. What did you find out there? More rabbit? I hope I don¡¯t have to eat fucking goblin meat,¡± the man said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just good old rabbit,¡± Gerry said. ¡°Great. That¡¯s more like it. My stomach turns just thinking about eating one of those grotesque goblins,¡± the guard said. ¡°Mm,¡± Gerry nodded before heading to the rabbit pen with the others. To the side of it was Nathanial and several others meditating with a mobile phone in the middle playing the sounds of a mountain stream. ¡°Nathanial, what exactly are you doing?¡± Jake asked and Nathanial opened his eyes. ¡°Ah. Jake. Gerry. You¡¯re back? Nothing much, we were just meditating. One of the folks here told me it was good for soothing the nerves. And I really need some of that after that battle,¡± Nathanial casually said before taking on a more formal tone, ¡°Anyway, what happened out there?¡± ¡°The good news is that we have food and water. There are loads of rabbits over in the west. And lots of trees too. There¡¯s also a pond of water. The trees are extremely sparse at first, but they get denser and denser as you head further out,¡± Gerry explained and Nathanial nodded. ¡°And then, there¡¯s the pond.¡± Gerry said. ¡°A pond?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s fairly far in, and next to a giant tree. There¡¯s also a ridiculous number of rabbits,¡± Gerry said. ¡°That¡¯s great, a stable source of food and water. That¡¯s more than we could ask for. I thought of setting up a pitcher to catch rainwater and to raise a few rabbits, but do you really think this is enough to feed 300 people? We¡¯d be dead by the end of the week,¡± Nathanial excitedly said. ¡°There¡¯s just one problem,¡± Gerry said. ¡°What is it?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°There¡¯s an ent. Jake went too close to the giant tree, and it tried to eat him. It was a miracle he managed to escape, as none of our weapons could harm him in the slightest,¡± Gerry said. ¡°An ent¡­ I see. That might complicate things,¡± Nathanial muttered. ¡°There¡¯s another problem,¡± Jake said and everyone turned to him. ¡°What is it?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°The cat.¡± Jake said. ¡°The¡­ Cat¡­?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Yes, we ran into a cat. It looked like a normal household cat. Something you¡¯d find on Earth everywhere,¡± Jake said. ¡°Yes, that would be very unusual in a place like this, is there something else about this cat?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°When it looked at me, I felt an intense pressure. And when it walked towards the ent, it was clearly frightened and immediately let me down. Asides from that, it behaved like a normal cat,¡± Jake explained. ¡°I see. That cat¡­ Bastet? No. That can¡¯t be possible,¡± Nathanial muttered. ¡°Bastet?¡± Jake asked. ¡°An Egyptian God who takes the form of a housecat, but it¡¯s a little too ridiculous,¡± Nathanial laughed.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°A G-God?!¡± Jake shouted. ¡°Well, it wouldn¡¯t be that surprising, didn¡¯t you look at the gods in the crowd when we were transported?¡± Nathanial said. ¡°The gods. They looked really strange and bizarre. Some had dog heads, green skin and other things. The only thing they had in common were the halos above their heads,¡± Jake said. ¡°Exactly. There¡¯s a god in Egyptian Mythology known as Anubis. He has a dog head and looks identical to one of the gods there,¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°The God of the Afterlife¡­?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Exactly.¡± Nathanial nodded. ¡°So, it wouldn¡¯t be a stretch to assume that Bastet is here as-well, however. Even if that turns out being the case, we can¡¯t afford to make assumptions, especially unfounded ones like this in this crazy world. Forget goblins or ents, if it¡¯s her, then they¡¯re nothing more than insects. That said, I doubt Anarak would have us encounter a god so soon, and there¡¯s another possibility. A boss.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°A boss?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yes, a boss. Games have bosses, right? With all these goblins, spiders, etc. all it¡¯s missing is a boss.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°Ah, that does make sense.¡± Jake nodded. ¡°Indeed, either way, we have this unknown threat out there, and it does make me nervous, but I think I¡¯d rather take my chances with the cat than with the green skinned fiends. Not to mention, that the cat didn¡¯t show any form of hostility, that¡¯s a far better neighbour than that feather capped asshole,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Agreed.¡± Jake nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll move out tomorrow, but there¡¯s something which unnerves me at the moment,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°What is it?¡± Jake asked. ¡°You said it¡¯s a grove of trees, right?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Yes.¡± Jake and Gerry replied. ¡°Okay. So. Did the ent show any signs of being a monster before you walked towards it?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°No, it looked like a normal tree, unlike any other until I did. The only unusual thing about it was its size,¡± Jake explained. ¡°That¡¯s what scares me. We could be walking into a nest of ents and not even knowing it,¡± Nathanial sighed. ¡°There¡¯s just one problem with that theory. When we walked through the grove, we moved in a formation where we moved from tree to tree to avoid being spotted by enemies,¡± Gerry explained. ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°I-It doesn¡¯t?¡± Gerry said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t. They might be nocturnal. If so, then that singular ent might be the night guard, so to speak. Or in their case, the day guard. Or otherwise an irregularity. The others might even be juvenile ents, while it is the adult. There¡¯s no reason to assume there aren¡¯t any others, just because they¡¯re small,¡± Nathanial explained and Jake¡¯s mouth dropped open. ¡°What should we do then?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yes, what indeed. The good news is that if there are small ones, then we can experiment with them first before risking our lives against the big one. And I doubt every tree is an ent. Anarak wouldn¡¯t be that obnoxious, would he?¡± Nathanial explained. Well¡­ You never know with Anarak¡­ ¡°We do have weapons capable of fighting against ents. However. We don¡¯t have many. If we rouse up the entire forest, then we will get slaughtered, especially if they chase after us,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re capable of that, they have roots not feet.¡± Jake said. ¡°How do you know that?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Well, it¡¯s obvious, we could see the trunk go into the ground,¡± Jake said. ¡°Mm. So, you don¡¯t know. You see, this might be a ruse. If it wasn¡¯t for that cat, it might have chased after you guys. Never underestimate the intelligence of these creatures, we never know what we might run into,¡± Nathanial scolded. Wow, he¡¯s thought of everything, I think he¡¯s being a little too paranoid, but I guess it makes sense after the incident with the spiders. ¡°The first thing we should do is rest. Everyone¡¯s exhausted after the adventure in the forest, I fear that if I push them into another rut, then they really will go crazy. They need time to soothe their frayed nerves. First thing tomorrow morning, we¡¯ll march down there and find an isolated tree. One that is so far away from the others, that we¡¯ll have little to worry about and we¡¯ll rush in and attack. If it moves, then it¡¯s an ent. If it does not, then well¡­ We have timber.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°What¡¯re we going to attack it with? Spears? Guns? Are we going to set it on fire?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Nonono, if we did that, all the wood would be ruined. We¡¯re going to use hatchets, with the rest of us standing by closely by.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°We have hatchets¡­?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yes, we do. Our not so benevolent god was generous enough to transport one of our lumberjacks with a hatchet.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Why didn¡¯t we use that in the earlier battles then?¡± Jake asked. ¡°I wish we could have, but if we did, then we would have ended up dulling the blades making it harder for us to chop down trees. And at the time, the goblins didn¡¯t look like so much of a threat, so we didn¡¯t bring them out against the spiders.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°What about the big battle against the feather cap and the spider riding goblins?¡± Jake asked. ¡°He did. He smashed it into one of the bastard¡¯s compound eyes, but you were too busy fighting a spider to notice it and I was having a showdown with the feather capped asshole,¡± Nathanial explained and waved gesturing one of the people who were meditating over. ¡°I¡¯d like you to meet Harry. He was a lumberjack responsible for chopping down tree, he¡¯s been in the industry for 15 years, and one day, he was summoned by Anarak.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Hello there, yes I was summoned by Lord Anarak, and not in a normal way either. One day, a strange face emerged from one of the trees and told me that I was being summoned. It was really freak and it ended up dragging me into the trees. When I woke up, I was on that strange field.¡± Harry sighed. Anarak sure is¡­ Creative. He has so many ways to abduct people. I¡¯ve heard many Anarak abduction stories, but no two stories are the same. ¡°I assume you heard our discussion?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°How could I not? I was meditating right next you. I¡¯m not sure how useful I would be against an ent. I know how to chop down trees, but I¡¯m not so confident against one of Anarak¡¯s abominations.¡± Harry said. ¡°I think you understand why I called you. While I could fire upon it, we¡¯ll run out of ammunition long before we spray every tree in this god forsaken forest. Ammunition we desperately need for fighting the goblins and spiders. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯ve escaped from them, if we¡¯re lucky, they¡¯ll just leave us alone, but I doubt that¡¯ll happen.¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°I understand. I said that I¡¯m not confident against them, but it doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t have any plans in fighting them. If worst comes to worst, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll send that thing back down to Hell,¡± Harry said. ¡°Mm. Okay. Harry will be our vanguard, he¡¯ll rush in to attack, while a team of troops follow. We have several improvised explosives we¡¯ve put together, but if things get really bad, then we¡¯ll run away,¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°Nathanial.¡± Harry said. ¡°Hm?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Does it have to be tomorrow?¡± Harry asked. ¡°What?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°I said. Does it have to be tomorrow? You really are a politician, Nathanial. The first thing you think about is keeping the masses happy, but have you thought about the consequences of not getting any wood?¡± Harry asked. ¡°Barricades.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Exactly. Barricades. Stockades. All sorts of things we need to fight the goblins. Did you forget why we went in that forest in the first place?¡± Harry said. ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten about i-¡± Nathanial said before he was interrupted. ¡°What good will their feelings do us, if we¡¯re all dead?¡± Harry shouted. ¡°I know. I know. However. Not only could the ent be far beyond our capabilities, but if any more people were to die, morale will drop like a rock, and if people go crazy, then it¡¯ll jeopardise our chances of survival. Also, we have no clue if things are remotely close to when the scouts went out. For all we know, some monsters may have migrated into the region,¡± Nathanial protested. ¡°There, you go again. What if this and what if that. What if the ent is beyond our capabilities? If it¡¯s beyond our capabilities, we¡¯re fucked. If we can¡¯t even handle an ent, then can we handle anything? Will hiding here do us any good? Will hiding here save us from the goblin hordes? Are we even sure that tree is a damned ent?¡± Harry shouted. ¡°Harry. Harry. Calm down. It¡¯s not like we don¡¯t have barricades. Anarak transported loads of furniture over from Earth when we arrived. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware of this?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°I know, but what good will busted up furniture from do? If we had something large like a truck, then we could sit on-top of it and fire, but do you think cabinets and desks will be enough?! This cheap crap?!¡± Harry screamed. ¡°Let me jump in here. Do we really need the whole group to fight an ent? And is a strong monster really going to drift there in such a short time?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Out of the question, remember the time you nearly died? I can¡¯t allow Harry to go through that. And have you forgotten the forest? Everywhere we went, there were fucking monsters. We couldn¡¯t walk 50 meters without a fucking monster rearing its ugly head,¡± Nathanial screamed. ¡°This area isn¡¯t anything like the forest. We went a really long distance. A couple of miles without running into a single thing, only rabbits and trees. Asides from the cat and the big ent, it seemed mostly safe,¡± Jake said. ¡°Rabbits. Trees. Ent. Cat. Are you sure? Absolutely sure there was nothing else?¡± Nathanial stared at him. ¡°What do you mean? Asides from that, there were flowers and fireflies, but nothing important.¡± Jake said. ¡°You don¡¯t get it, do you? The reason I suspect there are ents? Yes, it is partially because that thing could disguise itself as a tree, but it¡¯s the other reason I¡¯m have suspicions is because, that area seems too safe. Too quiet. Something about it is wrong. Really wrong. Especially, that cat. Do you really think it¡¯ll be safe after an apex predator like that leaves?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°You mean¡­ The reason there weren¡¯t any monsters was because they scared of that cat¡­?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Yes. I still stand by the theory that the ents were sleeping or something, but yes. That area is too safe. Too normal. How convenient for us that it has wood, water and food? And just happens to have the most vicious predator on this side of the planet. Harry, you brainless laggard. I appreciate the sentiment, but you would end up getting us all killed.¡± Nathanial grimaced. ¡°Tell us that in the first place then!¡± Harry shouted. ¡°Ugh¡­ Wait. We need to see the guards at once,¡± Nathanial got up and walked towards the outer perimeter. What¡¯s going on now? Several people waved to Nathanial, as he walked through the field, even passing a man in a white coat cutting a goblin open with a kitchen knife, the ground was drenched with green blood, and Jake held back the urge to throw up seeing it. Urgh, that¡¯s disgusting. They¡¯re dissecting goblins? I can see why they would, but ugh, that was disgusting. ¡°Peter!¡± Nathanial shouted at a gunman patrolling the outer perimeter with two others, the very same man who saw Gerry, Jake and the others off. ¡°Chief.¡± Peter responded with a salute. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for formalities right now. Tell me. Has anything changed in the hours you¡¯ve been patrolling? Tell me everything.¡± Nathanial quickly said. ¡°Not much, it¡¯s been surprisingly quiet. There¡¯s been a lot of fireflies, but besides that, it¡¯s the same as when we arrived. There¡¯s also been a few rabbits which we caught and took back to the pen in the inner circle,¡± he replied. ¡°Jake. Was there an increase in fireflies in the grove too?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Well yes, there were far more of them than there are here, and they rose dramatically as we went back.¡± Jake said. ¡°I see¡­¡± Nathanial muttered. ¡°What is it? Is there something wrong?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Look.¡± Nathanial pointed at thousands of fireflies forming a golden carriage in the sky and a little person with wings stepping out. A-A fairy?! ¡°Quickly. Prepare for combat, everyone!¡± Nathanial shrieked, an air raid siren rang out, and hundreds of people poured out of the inner circle. They stood there with their guns raised staring at the little person, when the person¡¯s face changed to a warped ghoulish look, as if the face of a tortured ghost. The sky darkened, as the fireflies surrounded the group and people screamed as their skin began to shrivel up. ¡°Don¡¯t touch the fireflies. They¡¯re dangerous!¡± Nathanial shouted and people started smashing them with spears and briefcases to limited effect. Strange, the fireflies were never like this in the grove. Wait. Could it be. They let us go, so they could¡­ Oh no¡­ Follow us back¡­ FUCK! Nathanial began to sweat, when a man with a long ponytail showed up with twenty people with rockets, they lit the ends sending them into the clusters of fireflies which detonated and sent flames in all directions. The fairy shrieked and the fireflies withdrew away from the group, before assembling in a formation in mid-air. ¡°Quick, put together something to swat these bugs! What was that?¡± Nathanial instructed his people before turning to ask the pony tailed man. ¡°I heard your conversation about the ents, so I took it upon myself to assemble a weapon which could light them on fire from afar.¡± The pony tailed man explained. ¡°Brilliant. You¡¯ve really saved us this time, James. How many of those do we have?¡± Nathanial hurriedly asked. ¡°Only another eight or so, we didn¡¯t have enough time before they started attacking. We have normal fireworks, but they don¡¯t have the same cluster effect,¡± he sighed. ¡°Eight¡¯s plenty. If we can take out the leader, then the rest should scatter,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°The leader¡­?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, the so-called fairy,¡± Nathanial pointed at the little person with the distorted face who responded with a vicious grin. 5: Emerald King The fairy¡¯s grin twisted wider and wider until it went from one side to the other and a high pitch cackle spread out. It waved its arms in a chaotic and maniacal fashion. What the hell?! Jake turned to Nathanial, only to notice a confused expression which quickly turned to shock. ¡°Can we take a closer look at the thing?¡± Nathanial asked, as an old man pulled out a pair of binoculars. ¡°It¡¯s laughing maniacally and¡­¡± he began. ¡°And what?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°You know¡­ It¡¯s almost as if¡­ It¡¯s drawing letters in mid-air¡­¡± the old man muttered. ¡°Letters¡­¡± Nathanial mumbled and he jumped back as the area around the fairy warmed up and a dozen fireballs came into being. Fucking hell¡­ That¡¯s why it called the fireflies back¡­ ¡°You fools, do you really think I¡¯ve never dealt with explosives before,¡± the deafening screech echoed out. It can speak?! Wait. Shit! ¡°The ex-¡± Jake was about to shout out, but the fireballs descended and smashed into the small piles of fireworks sending them flying into random people. Screams echoed out, and James collapsed on the ground from a severe burn to the chest. ¡°You humans are all the same, relying on petty tricks like rockets and flamethrowers! How do you like a taste of your own medicine?!¡± the fairy screeched. T-This fairy¡­ It¡¯s not like the goblins, it knows our weapons and flaws¡­ ¡°What wrong?! Aren¡¯t you going to spray me with bullets, haha? Isn¡¯t that your solution to everything?! Weren¡¯t you parading around Desla Forest spraying bullets at those stupid goblins, weeelllll?!¡± the fairy taunted. A flock of fireflies descended, as the fairy flew behind a squadron of them, and cackled. Jake turned to Nathanial and noticed that he was calmly giving orders to the others. He¡¯s surprisingly calm¡­ ¡°Calm down. It¡¯s bluffing. It¡¯s not as strong as it looks. Think about it, if it had such a powerful move, why wait until now?!¡± Nathanial shouted. A secret behind that move¡­ Owen screamed as a pack of fireflies engulfed him and his flesh withered away until a sack of flesh collapsed on the ground. A woman screamed in grief and started crazily shooting at the fireflies. Unfortunately for her, they dodged her bullets, almost as if they knew where she would point next, and shot towards her. ¡°F-fuck. Someone died¡­ Just like that?!¡± Jake involuntarily jerked back. Thousands of fireflies covered her leather coat and her skin began to shrivel away when a burning table smacked her from behind setting the fireflies on fire killing many of them, but before they could celebrate, several more people, two men and one woman collapsed into sacks of flesh. ¡°You bastard. Come down and fight us yourself!¡± one man screamed. ¡°Why would I do that? Only a human would be stupid enough to fall for those taunts,¡± the fairy laughed as it jerked around like a lunatic. ¡°What¡¯s it doing?!¡± Nathanial shouted at the man with the binoculars, who quickly lifted them up. This isn¡¯t the time for this! We¡¯re dying here! ¡°It¡¯s definitely drawing letters. They¡¯re faint but staying behind in those spots!¡± the man shouted. ¡°Stop it! It¡¯s summoning more fireballs!¡± Nathanial shouted, as James crawled towards an unlit firework, barely mustered the strength to light a match and it flew towards the fairy. The fairy suddenly jerked back and dodged the initial impact, but then more fireworks shot out from the first. The fairy screamed as it was immersed in flames and lit on fire. It waved its arms around crazily, but the flames only grew stronger, as its wings burnt away and it dropped on a sea of fireflies which carried it away. The other fireflies followed them back towards the grove. W-We won. Just like that¡­? ¡°So, this is magic¡­¡± Nathanial muttered, before shouting, ¡°Treat the wounds of the injured! Get me more fireworks or improvised explosives! Gather up the matches and recycle spare wood into shields, be ready to light them on fire, if more of those bastards come!¡± ¡°What happened there¡­?¡± Jake muttered. ¡°Why it was so slow at the end? From what we saw, it seems that it not only takes a while for it to charge up a spell, but it also can¡¯t move,¡± Nathanial explained. ¡°It was an idiot then?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Well¡­ It depends. If twenty waves like that show up and kill a few people each time, then we¡¯ll all be dead before the sun rises,¡± Nathanial sighed. ¡°Crap¡­¡± Jake muttered. ¡°But. We¡¯re prepared now. Everyone. Gather around the rabbit pen. Form a compact protective circle. Gunmen, be on the lookout for goblins. We will also need a squad of shield bearers with flaming shields at the ready. How is James doing?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°He¡¯s pretty badly burned, lucky his wounds aren¡¯t critical, but I don¡¯t know how long he¡¯ll survive without water and medicine,¡± an old man with a half-bald head sighed. ¡°I see, tch I didn¡¯t want to dig into our reserves but¡­ Colins, go investigate what types of medicine we have at hand!¡± Nathanial shouted. Colins walked away and started probing several people, while Nathanial smacked his fist against his podium. ¡°Damn. Damn. Damn. That fucking kid. First, those fucking goblins. Then, those fucking spiders. And now, he¡¯s sent fairies to fuck with us. What¡¯s next, a fucking dragon?!¡± Nathanial screamed, his face turned red from rage. ----- Far to the North, a woman in her early thirties wearing a suit and a spear strolled along through a swamp. She was accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a white gown and white face paint, along with a man in his early twenties who had a nose similar to that of a dog and shaggy hair. ¡°How much further do we have to go?¡± she asked. ¡°The newbies should be within a few dozen miles,¡± the dog nosed man replied. ¡°Those damned Rae Lords, they couldn¡¯t just transport them directly to us,¡± she scowled. ¡°Agreed, it¡¯s probably part of their sick game,¡± the man in the gown said before frowning. ¡°What is it, Elmhilt?¡± the woman asked. ¡°Fairies.¡± He muttered and the three moved into a battle stance. The young man stretched out his finger and started writing words in mid-air, the letters glowing bright with each letter added to it, as he did so an ocean of fireflies blotted out the sky and flew towards the group. The numbers far dwarfed that faced by Nathanial¡¯s group. The dog-nosed man smirked, as hundreds of golden fairies revealed themselves, as-well as one with six butterfly wings, an emerald crown and sceptre. It stretched out it¡¯s sceptre, but as it did, the spell completed and a big wave of fire engulfed half the firefly swarm. Dozens of fairies screamed as they were burnt away into dust. An emerald light descended and was blocked by a spear wielded by the woman in the suit. ¡°Is this all? An emerald king? Really? I shouldn¡¯t have expected much from this place¡­¡± Elmhilt sighed as a blinding light exploded from him and decimated another half before the woman took her other hand from behind her back revealing a completed spell. ¡°Aaah!¡± the fairy screeched as it and its comrades vanished into ashes. ¡°Let¡¯s move. I¡¯d hate to imagine what the newbies are facing,¡± the woman urged as they shot through the swamp. ----- ¡°It¡¯s been awfully quiet. Not a sign of them,¡± a guard muttered. ¡°Maybe, we scared them off after that bout with the fairy,¡± another said. ¡°I doubt it, knowing them, they¡¯ll probably planning how they¡¯re going to kill us,¡± Jake sighed. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± the guard sighed. Behind them were dozens of sleeping people, despite the danger, they still needed to sleep, otherwise they would go insane, this included their leader Nathanial, making Gerry the substitute leader while he slept. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll make it out of this alive. We already know there must be people around here somewhere, based on what the fairy said,¡± Gerry replied as he chugged down a bottle of water. I hope you¡¯re right, I¡¯d hate to think we¡¯re all alone in this shithole¡­ I know that Anarak transported other people, but they might be off on that cube for all I know. Gerry sighed as he gulped down again and gazed at the sky. ¡°Will I ever get back? What¡¯ll happen to you?¡± he muttered and Jake sighed. Trapped in this shithole away from our friends and family and even society itself. Alone with these abominations which wouldn¡¯t even be fit for a third-rate fantasy¡­ What¡¯re we going to do¡­? ----- ¡°What¡¯s wrong, why did you stop?¡± Elmhilt asked the dog-nosed man. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong¡­ But¡­ I can¡¯t smell anything wrong¡­ It¡¯s as if¡­¡± the dog-nosed man said. ¡°It must be your sixth sense,¡± the woman said before her vision began to shake and she closed her eyes before appearing in a dark murky world with a thick mist and billions of little lights. ¡°W-Where are we?!¡± the dog-nosed man asked. ¡°T-This is¡­ A dreamland space!¡± Elmhilt shouted. A dreamland space? We were called by spirits? A crazy laugh rang out, as a pumpkin headed man holding a pumpkin staff floated down. ¡°Welcome, my name is Sir Antoin, and we¡¯ll be taking those nice bodies of yours,¡± he cackled. T-they want our bodies? What sort of spirits are they?! Normal spirits can¡¯t take bodies! ¡°Phantom Spectres. Phantoms even among their fellow phantoms. Monsters from the Spirit Realm itself. It should be impossible to run into them here but¡­¡± Elmhilt muttered. ¡°Yes, indeed it should, but we¡¯re here, aren¡¯t we?¡± the pumpkin headed man said before lunging at the woman. She waved her spear and a huge burst of energy spread out, but it phased through the man and continued through to the lights who screamed out in pain. ¡°Is this all you can do?!¡± he shouted as he grabbed the woman and smirked. ¡°Finally¡­ After three hundred years, I¡¯ll be reborn once more¡­¡± he said as he moved his hand forward, encountering not flesh but dense set of words separating the two with a big explosion. Millions of lights flooded in, but a bright light exploded out from Elmhilt pushing them back, however the pumpkin floated through completely unaffected. He¡¯s so strong, as strong as Madenne¡­ Is he also Level 50?! Shit, she¡¯s not equipped for fighting powerful spirits. Why?! There are only supposed to be weak monsters around here! ----- I made it¡­ Good thing those humans didn¡¯t pursue me.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. A vast city with thousands of fairies unfolded before the wingless fairy, the fireflies lifted him down, and he went to talk to one wearing a medal. ¡°Humans are attacking. Hundreds of them. Under Level 10. They destroyed my wings and fireflies with explosives. I need your help!¡± he shouted. ¡°Level 10s? We have bigger problems to deal with. His Majesty was killed!¡± the guard screeched. ¡°His Majesty¡­ Impossible¡­ Even a Level 20 would have a tough time against his emerald magic¡­ Was it Huumlis?!¡± the unwinged fairy screamed. ¡°No. Worse. Humans. Three of them.¡± The guard shouted as hundreds of fairies frantically cast wave after wave of protective spells and erected a giant transparent shield. ¡°We¡¯re all going to die!¡± one fairy screamed. Fuck. I want to get my revenge against those bastards, but who knows if they¡¯re in league with that trio, I might be running into a trap! ----- Blood dripped down Madenne¡¯s arm as she gripped her spear. That fucking spectre, if I specialised in spirit magic this match would be over in an instant. She dodged back as it swooped in, it reflexively stepped back to dodge the explosives, and wrapped his hands around her throat, with many letters coming into being around him and binding her. ¡°You¡¯re quite a slippery one, but this match is over now,¡± he said. The dog-nosed man and Elmhilt panted as they poured their strength into keeping the endless lights at bay. ¡°This match is over?¡± Madenne suddenly started laughing and Antoin backed away. Hundreds of golden letters rose up and he reflexively dodged them, but he gasped in shock as they stopped in place and embedded themselves into the surrounding space. ¡°W-What are you doing?!¡± Antoin screeched and the Dreamland Space began to tremble as cracks spread from that spot exposing a giant rift. An immense force from it blasted Antoin and the other lights away, with Madenne taking the chance to slip through it with her compatriots. Madenne opened her eyes on the very spot she vanished from and looked around to confirm they had escaped. ¡°Finally, we¡¯re out of there. What did you do exactly?¡± the dog-nosed man asked. ¡°When we were transported, I scanned the Dreamland Space for any possible weaknesses, and I noticed something¡­ A small crack which was slowly closing.¡± She said. ¡°A small crack?¡± the dog-nosed man said. ¡°Yes, I don¡¯t know what caused it, but something probably ripped that space apart and it hadn¡¯t completely recovered,¡± she explained. ¡°Something powerful enough to tear open a Dreamland Space¡­ At-least Level 80, right?¡± the dog-nosed sighed. ¡°If an intruder did it, then yes, it probably was someone who was Level 80,¡± she nodded. ¡°You say that but, is there anyone who¡¯s Level 80 on this planet?¡± he asked. ¡°Who knows, this planet¡¯s huge and there¡¯s plenty of places we haven¡¯t explored yet,¡± Elmhilt said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised, if there was someone powerful behind that Antoin, how else would he appear here of all places?¡± she said. ¡°Someone powerful. A necromancer, perhaps?¡± the dog-nosed man said. ¡°Or¡­ A spirit king.¡± She said. ¡°What?! That¡¯s ridiculous!¡± the dog-nosed man shouted. ¡°Would a necromancer let their spirits take over living bodies? There¡¯s a good chance they¡¯ll lose control over them.¡± She explained and the two nodded. ¡°If it is a spirit king¡­ Which one is it?¡± the dog-nosed man asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. The only ones I know of are Vandik and Elaine.¡± She sighed. ¡°Elaine. Wasn¡¯t she the one who destroyed Atlantis?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes. Atlantis ruled over eight parallel earths and managed to get to the sixth wave in the third game, but then, she appeared. Elaine. The strongest necromancer. With her angels of death, the Atlantean Forces fell and those worlds were infested with monsters, I was shocked when I learned that she died in this universe. If even she can die, then what chance do we have?¡± She sighed. ¡°If we were to convert her strength to levels, how strong would she be?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but at-least Level 2000,¡± she said and a shiver went down his spine, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, spirit kings only have a portion of their power without a vessel and not all spirit kings are that strong. It¡¯s just Elaine that¡¯s a monster.¡± ¡°A vessel?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, and no ordinary vessel. It needs to be powerful enough to hold her soul,¡± she explained. Vessels to hold their souls, so that¡¯s why they¡¯re sending lesser spirits. The spirits would train the bodies up, and then the master will snatch it. ¡°The stronger the spirit king, the harder it is for them to descend, even if there was a vessel, she would expend a lot of energy doing it, so it¡¯s hard to say who would win. Only the ones trained from early on are risk free, as they¡¯re soul-bound to their king¡¯s every command, even if they don¡¯t know it,¡± she explained as they shot out of the swamp and into a mountain pass. ----- Jake yawned as the drowsiness began to set in. Not yet, got to hold it until it¡¯s my turn to get some rest. A faint animal cry echoed out and Jake strained his ear to figure out what it was. What the¡­? What was that? ¡­It doesn¡¯t matter what it is, I need to tell Gerry, one time this happened, we got attacked¡­ ¡°Gerry!¡± Jake shouted. ¡°Yes?¡± He asked. ¡°I heard some faint animal cries, I¡¯m not sure what that was though¡­¡± Jake said. ¡°I see.¡± Gerry said before his face twisted into a horrified expression as several giant bats came into view with several goblins and spiders in their talons. The goblins struggled and screeched, but it was to no avail in contrast to the bats¡¯ strength, among them was a feather cap who looked vaguely similar, but no one could connect the two. ¡°Fire!¡± Gerry shouted and dozens of bullets flew into the bat flock, but they continued as if they didn¡¯t feel a thing. Impossible¡­ They so much as flinch. Are they bullet-proof? A sudden gust of wind pushed Jake back and made him fall on his back as they descended. One of them grabbed him and flew into the sky with him. ¡°Let me go!¡± he screamed as he struggled. Gerry watched with his open as the flock disappeared towards the north. How on earth are we supposed to deal with these bats?! They don¡¯t so much as flinch when we fire at them, is Anarak trying to kill us all off?! How are we supposed to survive?! ---- ¡°What is it, Gunaf?¡± Madenne asked as the three climbed up a vertical drop on the side of a mountain. ¡°I smell¡­ A human.¡± The dog-nosed man replied. ¡°I see, we must be getting close,¡± she said. Madenne and the two dragged themselves off the vertical surface and into a cave on the side of it. ¡°Are you sure they¡¯re here?¡± Madenne asked. ¡°Yes, the smell is coming from in here,¡± Gunaf said, as a giant bat flew towards them, screeching and drawing its talons. ¡°A doom bat.¡± Madenne. Her spear glimmered with strange letters before extending into the bat¡¯s throat and retracting, leaving a dead corpse in its wake. I see. Doom bats like catching large mammals for food, especially goblins, they must have been caught by some, I hope they¡¯re still alive. Madenne casually strolled in, not making the slightest bit of effort to hide her presence, and killed two more bats the same way as the first without batting an eye. Several letters floated around Gunaf, as he and Elmhilt closely followed. ¡°I¡¯d like to finish this up quickly before Antoin shows up, so I¡¯m going to use the drone. It¡¯s bad for experience, but we can make up for it later.¡± Madenne said as she waved her arm and a metal disc appeared which floated up and followed them. A red light flashed as it looked around, searching for enemies. A bat came around the corner in the complex cave system, only to be gunned down within seconds by small bolts of plasma and collapsing. The trio quickly ran through without giving it a second glance. Gunaf turned to a wall made of rubies and was about to speak when Madenne said, ¡°Leave those trinkets behind. We can get them on the way back, hurry!¡± Gunaf sighed as they charged into a giant chamber filled with dozens of bats with several unconscious people, goblins, and spiders in the middle. The drone started firing away, and a spear went straight for the throat of the largest bat. Several letters glimmered in-front Gunaf before a flexible stream of fire smacked into two more bats giving them serious burns and avoiding hitting the people in the middle. A powerful gust of wind smacked into the trio, but it was blocked by a wall of light conjured up by Elmhilt. Madenne took the chance to swoop into the center and stand over the three unconscious people. She quickly wrote a few letters and a sea of flames spread out and burnt all the bats behind her to a crisp, the opposite direction of the other two of the trio. Several more streams of fire spread out from the duo and several more bats collapsed. Gunaf sighed as he thought, When will I reach her level? I¡¯ve trained for so long, but I¡¯m still only level 25. She¡¯s already at 52. I guess, I¡¯ve been too relaxed in the low risk training areas against ¡°safe¡± monsters. The last of the bats passed away, just as Madenne leaned down to examine Jake and the others. ¡°Strange. Very strange.¡± She said. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Gunaf asked. ¡°They have no level,¡± she said. ¡°What?!¡± he shouted. ¡°They have no level. If they have no level, they can¡¯t use any magic. Fuck, things are worse than I thought,¡± she said. ¡°How¡¯s that possible? Doesn¡¯t everyone get that tattoo when they arrive?¡± he replied. ¡°Yes¡­ They probably messed up and forgot to do it. Again. You two. Carry the people and try what you can to wake them up. We need to get to the rest fast. Or they¡¯re all going to die.¡± She shouted and the two picked lifted the three up onto their shoulders before sprinting after her. Fucking Rae Lords, always screwing things up. This is the fifth time this has happened. Get a grip, Mirdew. ----- Nathanial slowly opened his eyes. Ugh, that was a horrible dream. We were transported to this shitty world filled with goblins and spiders and fairies who were out to get us. He looked around a few times, before double-checking what he saw. He was greeted by a black sky with several moons and a cube. Fuck, it wasn¡¯t a dream. I¡¯m still in this shithole. He quickly jerked up and shouted, ¡°Gerry!¡± ¡°Here, Chief.¡± Gerry replied. ¡°What happened while I was asleep?¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Jake and a couple others were taken away by a pack of giant bats.¡± Gerry said. ¡°What?¡± he replied. ¡°I said. Jake and a couple others were taken away by a pack of giant bats.¡± Gerry said. ¡°What. The. Fuck. Tell me exactly what happened.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Yes. Four hours ago, Jake heard a strange sound. Shortly after, a flock of giant bats carrying goblins and spiders appeared. A powerful gust of wind smacked into us, and before we realised it, Jake was being carried away by a bat. We shot at them with our guns, but they didn¡¯t so much as flinch.¡± Gerry hurriedly said. ¡°I see, I got it. Fuck. Jake was one of our better people, ugh another one had to die.¡± Nathanial turned angry red. If you like eating goblins, be my guest. There¡¯s a whole forest of them, in fact I encourage it, kill them all, just leave us the fuck alone. Nathanial almost tripped over when a voice boomed out. ¡°Good morning everyone, I am Rae Lord Mirdew. One of Din¡¯s Seven Kings, and the Administrator of Rae Dae, the universe you¡¯re currently in.¡± ¡°R-Rae Lord?!¡± Nathanial gasped. ¡°Indeed. I should have spoken to you all yesterday, but I got a little side-tracked.¡± ¡°Side-tracked? You were playing around as always.¡± Anarak¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Anarak!¡± the voice protested. ¡°You probably think I sent you all to die, right? Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re not that bad¡­ At the moment¡­ I mean¡­ We aren¡¯t that bad. We¡¯re perfectly reasonable people, and to boost your chances of survival in our crazy world, we¡¯re giving you a splendid gift. The ability to use magic.¡± Nathanial gasped. Couldn¡¯t you have done this yesterday before people started dying?! You call this a gift?! ¡°Oh please, Nathanial. I already did you a favour by warding off the phantom spectres,¡± Anarak¡¯s voice rang out in his head. The phantom spectres? What the hell are those? Ghosts? ¡°What, indeed.¡± Anarak chuckled. ¡°I present to you¡­ Magic v3. My new product after several years of development. We spent thousands of years collecting feedback from you, the users, and we have finally incorporated it into one simple design. One universal app to unify the many species and races under our dominion, I even borrowed inspiration from your silly little cell phones.¡± Was he a tech CEO before he became a god? Why am I getting this PR and marketing spiel? ¡°The new version of magic has 12 new features, 28 UI improvements, and a playlist to store your favourite songs in, so that you can listen to Mozart while you slay dragons. As a universal app, it can be used on iOS, Android, neutral interfaces, and many systems beyond your sheer comprehension.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± Nathanial shouted. ¡°The first part of Magic is the Magic Tattoo, a registered trademark of Mirdew Industries.¡± Several hundred glowing bar codes descended from the sky and burrowed into their skin. Nathanial looked at his arm and a bar code briefly appeared before fading away. ¡°I won¡¯t bother explaining it, as you have the magic terminal for that, which you¡¯ll get next.¡± The phone in Nathanial¡¯s pocket started vibrating, so he took it out and looked at a strange progress bar which disappeared and a mysterious app appeared labelled ¡°Magic v3¡±. Oh, for fucks sake, you¡¯re not telling it it¡¯s literally an app?! I know that people like having apps for everything, but this is ridiculous! The sounds of Anarak snickering rang out, as Mirdew began to speak again, ¡°In the upcoming version 4, I will unveil the divine ascension system which will give you the chance to become a god. I was unfortunately unable to get it into version 3, but the next version should only be a few hundred years away in contrast to the gap between 2 and 3, so that¡¯s something to look forward to.¡± ¡°Mirdew! What the hell¡¯s going on here? How can we get home?!¡± Nathanial shouted. ¡°Don¡¯t be in such a rush, once the Fifth Game begins, you might wish you were here instead. It¡¯s simple, Rae Dae is an experimental world built for us to prepare for the Fifth Game, one of the Great Games between us and beings beyond your imagination.¡± ¡°What is this ¡®Fifth Game¡¯?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Yes, what indeed. Have you ever heard the legend of Atlantis?¡± ¡°An island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a powerful civilisation?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Idiot, that¡¯s just an outpost. The real Atlantis was a powerful empire spanning eight parallel earths harbouring god-like power.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Nathanial shouted. ¡°They were destroyed during the Third Game fifty thousand years ago by the Witch Elaine. Even their four legendary heroes couldn¡¯t stop her.¡± Mirdew spoke and Nathanial¡¯s mouth dropped open. Is he saying that an ancient civilisation far more advanced than our own was destroyed by a single person? Shit, the Earth¡¯s in trouble, if someone like that appears again. ¡°Indeed, even if you went back right now with this knowledge, it wouldn¡¯t change Earth¡¯s fate in the slightest, so why not see how far you can go here? Perhaps, you¡¯ll even find something¡­ Interesting,¡± Mirdew hinted. True, even if I miraculously convinced the government, what could we do against gods¡­ But, if I became a god, then¡­ This bitch Elaine is nothing. ¡°You say rae a lot, what exactly does it mean?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°Ah, good question. Raes are what universes are made of. They¡¯re the fundamental substance which makes up a reality. That big cube in the sky is known as the Great Raeputer, a computer made of rae which helps to stabilise spacetime in this universe, this wouldn¡¯t normally be necessary, but¡­ This universe was heavily damaged.¡± ¡°Damaged? How?¡± Nathanial said, but Mirdew stayed silent. Silence¡­ ¡°The magic app should have all the information you need to¡­ Survive, although if you¡¯re an idiot, then you¡¯ll die any- What. How dare you interrupt my speech?!¡± Mirdew¡¯s angry voice rang out as hundreds of goblins wielding swords and shields marched towards the camp. ¡°Get lost, I¡¯m busy talking here!¡± Mirdew screamed and an immense pressure descended on the army sending them running. Fucking hell, good thing Mr. Egomaniac arrived or we¡¯d all be dead. ¡°As I was saying¡­ There should be a camp with other survivors like you sent from a bunch of different worlds, they also have magic terminals, although probably different from yours, I figured you¡¯d be too dumb to handle a neural terminal without months of training, and I can¡¯t afford for you to die from something stupid like flinching from a blue screen appearing during a fight with a dragon.¡± ¡°There are dragons?!¡± Nathanial shouted. ¡°Maybe. Okay, that¡¯s it for today, and keep in mind that if all goes to plan, then the Fifth Game will begin in a mere twelve cycles.¡± 6: Rise of the Dead ¡°No! Get back here! What¡¯s this about dragons?! Mirdew!¡± Nathanial shouted, but Mirdew didn¡¯t reply. Damn it, that¡¯s the last thing I wanted to hear, how are we supposed to survive against fucking dragons?! We can barely deal with goblins and fairies. ¡°Urmm, Nathanial. About the app?¡± Leo said, pointing at the app with a simple W and a smaller 3 next to it. ¡°Ah yes.¡± Nathanial quickly tapped the icon and a window popped up. ¡°Welcome to Magic v3. We noticed that you¡¯re a new arrival, would you like to go through the newbie tutorial?¡± It prompted and Nathanial tapped ¡®Yes¡¯. Who¡¯d be dumb enough to say no?! ¡°Magic v3 is made up of two parts. The magic terminal and the magic tattoo which lets you cast ¡®magic¡¯. Magic is a major pain in the ass which makes no sense, you¡¯ll especially realise this later on. Don¡¯t be fooled by how logical it looks early on, things really are a mess. That¡¯s what happens when a bunch of creators with different ideas of what a world should be come together... And I¡¯m not just talking about shorty and the other lunatics¡­¡± Is it talking about Anarak¡­? And the other kings? Are there other crazy creators running around? Well, like it makes a difference. It¡¯s not like things can get any worse. ¡°Anyway, in this world, there are countless ¡®zones¡¯ with a wide variety of laws, completing the criteria for progression in that area will give you dratons. These dratons are absorbed by the magic tattoo and are present in tiny quantities in the atmosphere where it is processed by plants into magic wood. Animals also inhale it and over many years evolve into monsters. Defeating monsters will give you some of their points. Don¡¯t ask me how any of this crap makes sense, it simply is.¡± I see, so the longer you stay here, the stronger you become, more or less. No wonder the trees reach the sky and even a fucking cat is like a god compared to us, they¡¯ve probably been here forever. ¡°You can use ¡®magic¡¯, yes I mean that sarcastically, by focusing within yourself and ¡®dragging¡¯ a faint wisp of energy to your fingers. You won¡¯t be able to do anything vaguely useful with this level of magic, but if you practice over and over, then you¡¯ll eventually be able to draw more wisps, until you cover your entire hand, and then you¡¯ll be able to project a force push.¡± A force push? Is that all? Weren¡¯t they chucking fireballs at us? ¡°The force push is the most basic application of magic, with it, you can push small objects like remote controls or pebbles away without touching them, yes I know, it¡¯s really shitty. But, as you progress, you¡¯ll get more options, but for those, you will need to feel the sensation of natural phenomena and how the dratons flow through them and try to recreate it. You also need enough dratons to fuel it. All things you lack.¡± Enough power to push a fucking pebble? What is this crap? Even if I could push a person away, it wouldn¡¯t stop those fucking fireflies swarming me. Fucking hell, we really are screwed. ¡°Moving on. As part of the Newbie Care Pack, you will get enough dratons to reach Level 1. Be glad that you¡¯re even getting this, we sometimes drop people in the middle of death-traps just to see what happens.¡± It¡¯s almost as if this thing knows what I¡¯m thinking¡­ And what the hell is Level 1? Don¡¯t tell me this world is a video game or some shit? And fucking hell¡­ There are places worse than this?! ¡°As you accumulate dratons, your body will be infused with dratons making it stronger, and at a certain point, the magic tattoo will expand and take up more room. This is a level up. Once you reach Level 2, you will theoretically have enough dratons to push a person away. Your current level can be seen in the magic terminal, but you will have to wait for this explanation to conclude first.¡± Whooptedoo, I¡¯ll be able to push a person away. Fabulous. I¡¯m bursting with excitement. And my body will be covered in a giant tattoo, wonderful. That¡¯s exactly what I want. What a fabulous gift. Fucking hell, Mirdew. ¡°Instal- Applying the Newbie Care Pack.¡± A surge of energy flooded through his body, and he felt a tiny wisp of energy flow into his feet, up his torso, and into the tattoo on his arm. It throbbed for a moment, and then subsided. What the hell was that?! ¡°You are now Level 1. Practically worthless, but you¡¯re getting somewhere.¡± Damned computer. ¡°As you level up, you¡¯ll get more abilities, possibly even gaining the power to control time, all better than your shitty force push,¡± What?! I can get the power to control time?! ¡°As a last word of advice, don¡¯t go into any forests, until you¡¯re at-least Level 5. That¡¯s where all the monsters gather, especially the ones with trees which reach the sky. In fact, even if you¡¯re Level 5, don¡¯t go there unless you¡¯re in a large group, or you will die¡­ Probably.¡± That would have been useful to know earlier, we ended up figuring that out the hard way. And don¡¯t change the subject, tell me about controlling time! After reading through the text twice, Nathanial hit the close option and a strange window appeared in-front of him. It looked gorgeous beyond compare, and yet bizarre, as if the hands of an eccentric genius created it. At the top was text showing his level and an empty progress bar below it. How many years did Mirdew spend this designing this fucking screen, no wonder releases take forever. And great, a progress bar, I guess I¡¯ll have to fill it up to get my mighty force push, wahoo¡­ Ugh¡­ Nathanial glanced at the other options, but they were mostly greyed out and no matter how much he tapped them, nothing would happen. What the¡­? What¡¯s going on? Why can¡¯t I interact with anything? Wasn¡¯t there a playlist? ¡°The magic terminal is currently in survival mode. You can¡¯t access these features right now.¡± Survival mode¡­ What on earth does that mean? Maybe, if we survive against the threats here and grow strong enough to thrive, then it¡¯ll unlock the survival mode and give me access to the other options? Nathanial sat down and looked at his hand. He concentrated on the tattoo and felt the power bubbling within. He tried to thread it out, but nothing happened. Hm¡­ How do I do this¡­ His face turned red as he struggled with all his might, but nothing happened. I must be doing something wrong. He turned and shouted, ¡°Does anyone have any idea how we use the tattoos?¡± ¡°I think we need to meditate and become one of the universe. Guide the energies through and the rest will follow.¡± The bald monk said. ¡°Okay, the guards will continue the patrols, while we try to get this thing working.¡± Nathanial announced and the guards frowned. You¡¯ll get a chance to do this later, you too will get the chance to throw pebbles with your mind, ooh mighty. But I really don¡¯t want you meditating when the fairies or the goblins or the dragons come to kill us. Nathanial sat down, opened the music app on his phone and left some relaxing music playing as he sank deeper and deeper into meditation. Now that I think about it, do I need to charge my phone anymore? I noticed that it stayed at 100% and never went do- No. No thinking. Empty your mind. Several images fluttered through his head, including a vague image of a pumpkin. Pumpkin¡­ Pumpkin¡­ It came closer and closer, becoming more and more distinct, until the horrifying face with a sinister grin mere centimetres away from him. Just as it was about to swallow him up, he suddenly opened his eyes and held back the urge to scream. What the hell was that?! What the fuck. Why the hell are pumpkins appear while I¡¯m meditating?! What the hell is going on?! He grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down. Ugh, what the hell was that¡­ Will that happen every time? Ugh, what a shithole¡­ Let¡¯s try it again. ----- ¡°Who are you? Where am I?¡± the drowsy Jake asked. ¡°Me? I am Madenne, a member of Sienna¡¯s Vauleron,¡± Madenne spoke. ¡°The Vauleron?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, we noticed that our good ¡®friend¡¯ Anarak sent another batch over, so we went out to fetch them,¡± she said. ¡°Ah I se- Aaaa!!¡± Jake screamed as a black tattoo descended from the sky and drilled into his arm.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°About time.¡± Gunaf said. ¡°Hello to all on Planet Zufia, I am Rae Lord Mirdew, you¡¯ve probably encountered me before. I¡¯m here today to announce the release of Magic v3, the latest version of magic using the newest raenologies.¡± ¡°Ugh, this guy¡­¡± Madenne scowled. ----- ¡°Well Mirdew, I¡¯m off now.¡± Anarak said. ¡°Leaving already?¡± Mirdew asked. ¡°Yeah, they need me for something back on Terra Five, we¡¯re getting really busy with the arrival of the Fifth Game and Din won¡¯t tolerate failure, especially not after the disaster during the Fourth Game.¡± ¡°The Nillian¡­¡± Mirdew thought as an image of a dark angel came to mind. ¡°Yeah, the Nillian. It took ages before Ragnarok got his arm back after fighting it. That damned coward, if I was there¡­. That fool never stood a chance.¡± Anarak said. A triple haloed god next to Mirdew thought, ¡°A Nillian ripped off Lord Ragnarok¡¯s arm?! That¡¯s...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it, that thing won¡¯t attack here, this place is too heavily fortified. Besides, it¡¯s been a hundred cycles, it¡¯s probably off killing Rae Lords somewhere else,¡± Mirdew sighed. ¡°Those damned Nillians¡­ What the hell is the Rae Council thinking letting those¡­ Things run around¡­¡± Anarak clenched his firsts. ¡°Who knows¡­ The Rae Council never makes sense¡­¡± Mirdew said. ¡°I know but¡­ Of all the places¡­ This far in¡­ How could they possibly appear here¡­¡± Anarak asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± Mirdew sighed. ¡°I know¡­ Anyway¡­ Good luck here, the great game is coming up soon and¡­ Perhaps, they¡¯ll make another appearance¡­ If it¡¯s just a Nil Lord, then I can handle it but¡­ if it¡¯s the Eye of Destruction¡­¡± Anarak sighed and Mirdew shivered. I hope not, every time those damned Nillians appear, countless worlds vanish. Especially¡­ A Nil Lord¡­ No¡­ A Nullseer. Damn¡­. Damn! How the fuck did a Nullseer appear here?! What¡¯s the Meta doing about it?! Anarak waved goodbye and stepped through time and space before arriving on a giant spherical world ship with thousands of worlds within similar to the one Jake and co. were in at the start of the story. Behind it was a vast gelatinous blob stretching out until infinity and constantly shifting. Giant vortices sucked in tremendous amounts of rae and rotating relativistic jets shot out vast amounts of energy. This was none other than the Rae World¡­ Rae Dae. Surrounding it were millions of rae ships manned by double haloed and even triple haloed gods who confirmed Anarak¡¯s identity and watched as he departed into the depths of the Rae. ----- ¡°You know¡­ If dratons are just energy you can absorb, why can¡¯t you collect it with the drone?¡± Jake said as he clutched his arm. ¡°You can.¡± She replied. ¡°What?¡± He asked. ¡°But, most of it dissipates as the tattoo has a ¡®magnetic¡¯ force. Also, this drone isn¡¯t designed for storing dratons and no one¡¯s going to be using something that precious for a drone. We¡¯d still have to toss a fireball or two to draw it to us, and at that point, we might as-well kill the monsters ourselves. The drone¡¯s just here to deal with nuisances once we grow tired of them.¡± She explained and she swung her spear out at him. ¡°He-¡± He flinched back. ¡°This spear. Can store dratons. Watch.¡± She said and strange lines and letters appeared on it. ¡°With this spear, I can kill Level 50s. That drone would struggle against Level 20s.¡± She explained. ¡°I see,¡± he said as she dragged him along, ¡°Wait, what.¡± ¡°Come. We¡¯re nearly there, let¡¯s grab the others and get the hell out of here before Antoin shows up,¡± she said before running off with him. ¡°Antoin? Who the hell is that?¡± ¡°A phantom spectre.¡± ¡°A phantom spectre?¡± ¡°A sort of monster from the Spirit World which tries to hijack your body, it used to be a person like you, but in the end died.¡± ¡°Like a ghost.¡± ¡°Yes, but worse. Much worse. They can create spaces between here and the Spirit World known as Dreamland Spaces which they can drag sleepers into and try to hijack your body through. If they¡¯re sufficiently powerful, they can even draw out your consciousness while you¡¯re still awake. Like that bastard Antoin,¡± she said. ¡°Dreamland Spaces¡­ Phantom spectres¡­¡± ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± she asked. ¡°Pumpkin?¡± He asked. ¡°Yes, he looks like a¡­ You¡¯ve met him?¡± She asked. ¡°Well, we had a strange dream¡­¡± He said. ¡°How the hell did you survive?¡± She asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I¡¯m pretty sure I heard Anarak.¡± He said. ¡°Wow, he¡¯s actually done something useful for once, he usually fucks off after dropping us in this shithole.¡± she said. ¡°Antoin is ridiculously strong, even I would die fighting him, but of course, Antoin is nothing more than an insect in-front of a Rae Lord. Anarak could erase him just by wishing it.¡± ----- ¡°Ugh, finally. I¡¯ve finally done it.¡± Nathanial muttered as he sent a grain of dirt flying without touching it. Haha, after four hours, I¡¯ve finally grasped it, it won¡¯t be long before I¡¯m flying and throwing fireballs, the whole world will be at my fingertips, I¡¯ll be akin to a god¡­ Like hell that¡¯ll happen, it took four whole fucking hours to master this crap. How are we supposed to survive with goddamn dust flingers?! Even a fucking goblin, the creatures without a brain can do better than me! ¡°Gerry. I really don¡¯t think this is working.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Neither do I. Maybe, we need to kill monsters to get more XP?¡± ¡°Dratons.¡± ¡°XP.¡± ¡°But, what exactly are we going to kill? Mirdew scared away the goblins, but I doubt they¡¯re just going to let us kill them one by one, we¡¯ll get slaughtered.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Maybe, the treant? Do rabbits count?¡± Gerry asked. ¡°I have no idea. Probably. But I really don¡¯t want to destroy our food supply, and I¡¯m slightly worried about going after the treant, as the fairy came from over there.¡± Nathanial sighed. ¡°Then, there are only two places we can go. The North or the South.¡± Gerry said. ¡°The bats came from the north, I really don¡¯t want to run into them, although they¡¯re probably asleep. Still, I don¡¯t want to take chances, and if we can get some distance between us, then it¡¯ll reduce the chances of them taking someone else away. We¡¯ll go south.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°Are you really that afraid of a fairy?¡± He asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid of a pack of fairies coming to kill us. Like the army of goblins which came by earlier.¡± Nathanial said. ¡°I agree, let¡¯s go south.¡± Gerry said. ----- ¡°What are those things?¡± Jake asked, pointing to the monsters with tentacle hair devouring wolves. ¡°Tentascallions. They¡¯re mostly harmless. To us at-least.¡± Madenne said as the drone slaughtered them and Gunaf let off the occasional fire wave. These guys are invincible. What the hell were we doing? We could have just sat back for the day, waited for them to show up, and avoided anyone dying. ¡°Do you have any advice on how to use magic?¡± Jake asked. ¡°This isn¡¯t the time or place for practice, we can do that later.¡± Madenne said. ¡°The best advice I can give you is to kill things. A lot of things. You can figure out how to guide the dratons once we¡¯re in a safe place,¡± Gunaf said. ----- Nathanial marched forward with the group, occasionally stopping to try to get the feel of the dratons, but failing each time. We probably need to kill more enemies before we have more energy to work with. He shook his head at the barren fields with the occasional tombstone. ¡°Nathanial¡­ I have a bad feeling about this¡­ It¡¯s almost as if something¡¯s watching us¡­¡± Leo said. ¡°Everyone, get back!¡± Nathanial shouted. ¡°Ihihi, humans. Lots of tasty humans.¡± A voice sounded out, as little clouds of smoke drifted around, and an arm emerged from the ground. ¡°Zombies!¡± A woman shouted as a half-decayed corpse rose up, and then another. ¡°Haha, this is exactly what we need, a flood of experience.¡± A man shouted as he waved a baseball bat at one of their heads, and killing it. Little did he know that off in the distance, a vague image of a pumpkin was watching him. Several spears flew out and Nathanial hit one over the head with a chair. I¡¯m sorry I have to do this, but if I don¡¯t, then it¡¯ll be me rising from the grave to eat brains next after those fairies or goblins or dragons get to me. My country also needs me, especially my family, I won¡¯t let this travesty overtake our world. ---- ¡°You¡¯re finally leaving the Spirit World?¡± a creepy white puppet said to a blurry woman, the same woman who had previously breached the barrier.. ¡°Yes, I got everything I can out of this hellhole¡­ And I¡¯ve finally managed to escape from ¡®his¡¯ gaze,¡± she said. ¡°Haha, that Osiris, the same as always. Good, good. For a moment I thought you¡¯d miss the great game...¡± It said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡­ The game is everything.¡± She said. ¡°Elaine.¡± A blurry man with a long beard floated down with several other spirit kings. ¡°Have you decided yet?¡± She asked. ¡°Are you out of your mind? You want us to descend to the lower realms?! How?! Even if we make it through, the laws will suppress us to the point where the wind can dissipate our souls at any moment!¡± He shouted. ¡°Or what? You want to train for a billion years until you become a god? Please spare me the bullshit. Do you think I would time on this crap? You think I¡¯d give up on the Fifth Game so easily?! The game is everything to me! I¡¯ll finally have the chance to enter Heaven¡¯s Tower and surpass those so called gods.¡± Elaine spat at his face. ¡°What else are we supposed to do? Steal a mortal¡¯s body? Hah, good luck with that, that damned Osiris stacked the cards against us, the best chance we have is a subordinate, but the moment we enter their body, the law¡¯s suppression will vanish and the body will explode from the inside from our power.¡± He shouted and pointed at Elaine who merely responded with a cackle. ¡°The laws? That crap? Do you know who I am. Elaine. The Empress of Death. Do you think I¡¯d die that easily? My physical body lives. Half destroyed. But encased in ice and alive. Not that it stopped that damned Osiris from luring my soul over the boundary. When I become a Creator, I¡¯ll kill him.¡± She shouted and they gasped. ¡°If you follow me, after I regain my body, I will conjure up a powerful enchantment to protect you from The Rules. His laws might be able to bind us now, but do you think they¡¯d dare encroach upon me once I¡¯ve recovered my strength? I am a Rae Shifter! No law can truly bind me!¡± She said. ¡°A Rae Shifter?!¡± The old man screamed. ¡°Yes. A Rae Shifter. Just like the Creators, I have seen the secrets behind the world, secrets beyond time and space. Unlike them, I haven¡¯t turned them to power or unearthed the truth of the Rae, but it¡¯s only a matter of time.¡± Elaine said and the kings trembled. ¡°I¡¯m not the only shifter here either,¡± she winked at the puppet. ¡°Aw, I was hoping to keep a low profile. I¡¯m not helping you, you know. I¡¯m just an observer.¡± It said. ¡°Who is that?¡± A king muttered. ¡°That is¡­ The Rae Lord Zekkalokt.¡± 7: The Fierce Battle Vern swung his goblin sword at the bloodthirsty skeletons, separating marrow from bone, heaving and huffing. A dozen more stared at him as he thought, Finally, I levelled up¡­ Level 2. A skeleton pounced at him when he thrusted his palm sending it flying back with a powerful force before the sword pierced its eye socket bringing it¡¯s tragic life to an end. That damned Nathanial, always so cautious, it was so hard getting a chance to get away from the group like this to farm XP¡­ If I was with him and used that sword, those bastards would already be trying to kill me in my sleep, maybe they¡¯d pour goblin blood in my mouth and claim it¡¯s some fucking alien virus, mourn my loss and steal the fucking sword, especially that damned Sean. That fucking psychopath. ---- Finally, the chance to farm XP. Fucking hell, that damned Nathanial, what¡¯s the point of a game world, if I can¡¯t take the chance to kill a few people, a dozen dragons, and hundreds of undead. They are all cowards. A young man with blonde hair thought as struck down a skeleton with a broom and crushed its skull with his boot. Aaah Level 2, so wonderful. I can even use it like this to accelerate my foot¡­ Aha¡­ I wonder what it¡¯ll be like at Level 5¡­ If it¡¯s like this in the first few hours then¡­ I¡¯ll be a god before long¡­ If I go to earth after that, then I can kill those damned bastards. ---- Nathanial smashed his chair into another zombie¡¯s head when two zombies and a skeleton jumped at him, he felt a strange sensation in his foot when he suddenly bounced out of their hands and smashed a zombie with his chair. Is this the force thing? Who cares. A gun shot rang out and yet another zombie collapsed and Nathanial blocked a sword from the bulky skeleton with his sturdy chair. He pushed with all his might and made it topple over onto the ground. He smashed his foot down onto it¡¯s wrist releasing the sword and smashed it into its skull. Finally¡­ A sword¡­ No more crappy spears. And I think I understand the force crap no- Nathanial leapt to the side as a skeleton wearing a bone crown lunged at him. It¡¯s nails suddenly extended towards his head and he quickly smashed his chair into it to block it. Sweat dripped down his face as several dents grew deeper and deeper before the nail pierced through. What the hell?! Fuck. The nail shot towards his head when Nathanial used all his strength to drag the chair to the side sending it¡¯s trajectory off and taking a piece of flesh off his arm instead of his head. Is this their leader?! Fuck. He smashed his sword with all his might at the nail breaking it and the skeleton howled and spewed fire from its mouth. What the fuck?! Nathanial jolted back and the chair quickly began to melt and dripped down on the nails fusing them with it. The skeleton howled as it tried to rip the nails out of the chair and to direct them at Nathanial. He quickly took advantage of the situation by kicking hard against an undamaged portion and swinging his sword at it¡¯s exposed body, but before it could reach, it collided with an invisible shield and bounced back. What the hell¡­ A shield?! How am I supposed to kill it, if it has a shield?! Anarak!!! It finally ripped it¡¯s nails out when several gunshots rang out sending bullets flying at it, of the three, two missed and one hit an invisible shield which trembled before bouncing it away. It trembled¡­ Nathanial¡¯s face changed as he grasped the chair, using it as a shield to smash against the skeleton¡¯s thrusts and the sword to smash against the shield. He violently smashed it over and over relentlessly. I see! As he smashed it, it vibrated more and more before the sword pierced through towards the crown. The skeleton pulled back it¡¯s arm¡¯s to protect it¡¯s head, but it was too late as the sword split the crown in two and continued bringing the skeleton¡¯s life to an end. Finally¡­ I did it¡­ What the hell was that¡­ Nathanial panted before he felt the familiar sensation of a level-up surge through him. Agh, this again¡­ --- ¡°He broke through the anti-projectile shield?¡± A ghostly voice shrieked. ¡°Not bad, is it? He¡¯ll make a perfect vessel for one of you.¡± A blurry pumpkin head said. ¡°Him? Hah. He¡¯s only a newbie, he¡¯ll probably blow up, if I try to take-over him.¡± It replied. ¡°True, but¡­ It wouldn¡¯t hurt keeping him around as a long term investment, strong bodies are few and far between¡­ Also¡­ He¡¯s not the only useful one...¡± The pumpkin said. ¡°Those guys¡­ I¡¯ll be looking forward to it¡­ Hehe...¡± It cackled. ---- ¡°Not bad, you already grasp the basics, I thought you¡¯d take a few days at best. Not bad¡­ For a mortal at-least. Your force push days might be coming to an end soon...¡± An unpleasant voice whispered in Nathanial¡¯s ear. ¡°Who are you?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°You know who I am¡­ Or perhaps I should say¡­ What I am¡­ Guess.¡± It said as it faded away. Who the hell was that¡­ And he¡¯s mocking me about that damn force push. Screw it, it doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s probably another god mocking me, there¡¯s plenty of those around. A wisp of power flowed into his foot and he shot at a zombie fighting three people fending it off with a bedsheet to block it¡¯s vision and deodorant to kill it¡¯s sense of smell. He swung his sword and smashed it into neck, however this wasn¡¯t enough to kill it as it¡¯s head twisted toward him trying to bite his arm. Fuck! He pulled back and smashed toward with his chair shield, barely managing to escape unscathed. Fucking hell, fucking hell¡­ These damned¡­ I almost got infected¡­ If that happened, then I¡¯d probably wind up as one of these mindless zombies¡­ Fuck. Faint particles drifted into him and the bystanders, mostly into him as one person grabbed it¡¯s sword and the other went off with them to hunt more down, but not before one said, ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°No problem, we need every man we can get in this hellhole of a world, don¡¯t die out there,¡± Nathanial said and they nodded. He gazed around, looking for people in trouble when he noticed a skeleton wearing iron armour and several people running away while it had a big grin on its face. Or what looked like a giant grin on its skeletony face. Without wasting a single moment, he shot towards it from behind while it was distracted with the ¡°meat¡± in-front of it and smacked his sword at its neck when it¡¯s head suddenly turned and a jet of pressurised water shot out of its mouth¡­ He raised his chair to block, but it couldn¡¯t hold before it pierced through, losing most of its strength before smashing into him. Fuck, another one! The skeleton quickly took the chance to kick him away, when a man in his forties charged it from behind with a skeleton¡¯s sword and smashed hard against the helmet rattling it but dealing no damage. N¡­ No shield. This one seems different but¡­ As the skeleton turned to confront the new enemy, Nathanial swept in again and smashed its neck to pieces with the rest of it collapsing. I knew it, it can¡¯t use that water jet multiple times! Just like the skull crown skeleton! He quickly turned as he saw dozens of skeletons and zombies gathering in the distance, one was a jet black skeleton holding a lance and one looked like a living man except he was deathly pale. What are those¡­ Damn¡­ Should we continue closer or¡­ They look dangerous¡­ But if they¡¯re like the previous one, then we can overwhelm them with numbers¡­ Tch¡­ ¡°Everyone¡­ Cautiously move in, and be ready to escape.¡± Nathanial shouted. The large group of people began to converge after previously being spread out to hunt skeletons and slowly crept up to the congregation. The monsters turned and snarled and the jet black skeleton said, ¡°Fucking Antoin, what am I supposed to do with a pack of low level monsters? The best we can do is feed this rabble¡­ Fuck. He wants to strengthen them to make it easier to possess them. Damn!¡± It turned to run when a red brand appeared on its forehead. ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going?¡± A ghastly voice said and it sighed and faced the crowd. ¡°Stay together in groups, don¡¯t let them isolate you. For every skeleton, we need a zombie providing cover. Elites will move to assist hard worn areas¡­ Fuck. Drag this out for as-long as you can until Sir Antoin arrives!¡± It shouted and the skeletons grunted in response. ¡°Are you that scared of them? They¡¯re just a bunch of Level 1 and 2 pups, you¡¯re Level 5. Just look how much trouble one of them had with a Level 2, he took forever breaking through the anti-projectile shield, do you think they can as much as scratch you?¡± The pale man said. ¡°There are hundreds of them! And humans are sneaky like hell, especially that damned woman.¡± It said. ¡°She might be able to do something but¡­ As for these guys¡­ You worry too much, they don¡¯t even know how to break a shield without depleting it. By the time they¡¯re through, they¡¯ll be dead.¡± The pale man said. ---- Nathanial crept close when he suddenly channeled the power to hit foot and leapt at the closest skeleton. The skeleton raised its sword which collided with the chair while Nathanial smashed its head with his sword. Skeleton swords are surprisingly sturdy, it¡¯s almost horrifying how easily they smash heads¡­ Did they spawn new swords or did it lie there for god knows how long¡­? Well, not that it matters.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. He turned and smashed his sword at the next skeleton but a zombie leapt in the way and smashed it¡¯s arm into it. Nathanial tried to pull it out, but it grabbed onto the chair with it¡¯s other arm and tried to lean in to bite him. Hell no. Nathanial jumped back abandoning his weapons and grabbed a new sword from a comrade and swung in once more about to smash its head when the skeleton blocked it with a swing. It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re getting smarter¡­ Nathanial kicked the chair at the zombie pushing it back and quickly swung in with his sword and just as it was about to block¡­ He pushed himself to the side and swung in again but it jumped backwards to dodge it and a zombie jumped in from the side at his ankle. It tore open his pants with it¡¯s claws when it was suddenly sent flying back by an invisible force, but instead of taking the chance to kill it, Nathanial leapt back as the skeleton came in once more. ¡°Need help there?¡± Gerry jumped in and smashed the skeleton¡¯s head with a club. ---- Gunaf conjured up thousands of runes which created an ice bridge through the swamp, Madenne continued drawing symbols which formed a bigger and bigger constellation behind her Dozen of feather caps conjured up balls of fire, wind and water, but it hit an invisible wall and turned back at the attackers knocking them off their feet before the drone incinerated them. The dog nosed guy whistled and the spiders leapt at the remaining goblins and greedily devoured them. Jake looked on in awe at it all. They make this crap look easy¡­ We had so much trouble fighting those fucking green faced bastards but they slaughter them with ease. ¡°It was near here, right?¡± Madenne asked. ¡°No, further. Not that I can really tell in this fucking forest where everything looks the same, but there was a field.¡± Jake said. ¡°How is it?¡± Madenne asked the dog nosed guy. ¡°Hm¡­ I¡¯m not really sure as the wind¡¯s been scattering the scent, but¡­ I smell goblins in that direction¡­ Many. Thousands.¡± He said. ¡°I see, we¡¯ll just have to ask them then.¡± Madenne said. ---- The jet black skeleton leapt through the crowd as he saw skeletons falling around him. Fuck. Antoin, you bastard, how could you send me on a suicide mission like this. He caught sight of one man with a chair being de-armed and tied down by the skeleton and zombie before a helper leapt in. That¡¯s it¡­ Buy time¡­ Fuck, he has help, that¡¯s it... The jet black skeleton jumped over the skeleton wall and landed in-front of the man who had a look of horror on his face. ---- Fuck, it¡¯s the black skeleton. ¡°Focus on the black skeleton.¡± He shouted and several comrades appeared around him. The skeleton shot towards him with it¡¯s lance at an incredible speed, instantly appearing before him and thrusting. He pushed himself to the side, but the lance went right into his elbow making him drop his weapon. Several others smashed their swords and clubs at it, but bounced off an invisible shield. Some even fired off guns, but it didn¡¯t even tremble. A¡­ shield¡­ And far worse than the last¡­ It thrusted again, hitting Nathanial in the ribs as more people gathered and desperately hammered away at it to no avail. He thrusted himself back, but the skeleton simply matched his speed and responded with a third thrust. Fuck! As it came in, he raised his hand in-front of his hand and tried to grab it piercing his hand. He grabbed hard with his remaining hand, but the skeleton punched hard it¡¯s other hand nearly knocking Nathanial out and forcing him to release it. It thrusted once more when it suddenly stopped in mid-motion and retreating back into the horde. What¡­ the¡­ fuck¡­? --- ¡°Antoin¡­!¡± The jet black skeleton howled. ¡°He¡¯s an important vessel, we can¡¯t have you killing him.¡± The voice replied and it scowled. Damn it, we¡¯re being mowed down and these clowns won¡¯t even let me kill the enemy, fucking hell. ---- Why did it go back¡­? What the hell¡­ That¡¯s too crazy, we¡¯ve got to get the hell out of here. Nathanial clutched his wounds as a man carried back into the group. Before he passed out entirely, he said, ¡°Get the hell out of here back to the plains, this place is too dangerous.¡± The group slowly backed away as they fended off skeletons, but to Gerry¡¯s shock, most of them passively watched rather than chasing them down. What¡¯s going on¡­ As he stepped back and blocked blows, he noticed that the area was beginning to get misty. Not good, if visibility drops, then we¡¯ll be done for if that skeleton comes back. ---- They¡¯re backing away? Were the humans always this cowardly? Fucking hell, if it wasn¡¯t for that stupid order, we¡¯d be able to slaughter them¡­ The undead need no rest¡­ The more they run, the closer they¡¯ll get to their deaths¡­. Antoin¡­ You useless bastard¡­ ¡°Velnort.¡± The pale man said. ¡°What?¡± It replied. ¡°It¡¯s time.¡± He said as the sky changed colours and a giant geyser erupted behind them releasing a thick white gas across the entire area. A pumpkin man descended with three grey capped spirits and thousands of glowing lights, their aura swept out and suffocated Velnort. Ugh¡­. Fuck¡­ It¡¯s him¡­ ¡°We meet again, not that you¡¯d remember, but I¡¯m Antoin.¡± It said as thousands of lights burrowed into the people, but unlike before, they resisted for a short while before succumbing to the presence and collapsing. ---- Madenne looked over the hill at a giant cloud consuming the land. A black cat with tribal tattoos ran up to them. ¡°It¡¯s you¡­ What are you here?¡± She scowled. ¡°The Felis Clan detected some strange activity in the astral and sent me to investigate.¡± It said. ¡°Yes, sure you did, something like this is exactly the sort of thing your people would do,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s not us. It¡¯s her.¡± It said. ¡°Her?¡± She asked. ¡°Elaine. Empress of Death. Lady of Catastrophe. Embodiment of Doom.¡± It said. ¡°What.¡± She said. ¡°Elaine has a great plan. I don¡¯t know what it is, but 80 powerful spirits have descended, that Level 50 is one of them¡­ And one of the weaker ones.¡± It said. ¡°Fuck, that¡¯s exactly what I need, more damned 50s.¡± She said. ¡°It¡¯s a big problem for us too, especially since we don¡¯t know what her intentions are.¡± It said. ¡°Intentions? They obviously want to take over our bodies and live again.¡± She said before swinging her arm. The constellation of runes trembled as it condensed together and a bright light shone out almost seeming as if it would push back the fog before a jet black three-headed giant of a dog descended. ¡°C...C...Cerberus¡­ No¡­ A Micro Cerberus¡­¡± The cat said. ¡°Exactly.¡± Madenne said as she leapt in on it¡¯s back with the others. Cerberus, the guardian of the underworld and bane of the dead. Even Antoin shouldn¡¯t be able to resist it. Let¡¯s see how you¡¯ll deal with me this time. Antoin chuckled as the bodies convulsed and then he grimaced. She¡¯s already here? Fucking hell, I wanted to take over these clowns and play dumb as if they never met me. Fuck. And a Fake Cerberus too? This is going to be painful. The souls trembled as they whispered, ¡°Cerberus. It¡¯s come for us.¡± One of the grey caps said, ¡°That¡¯s not Cerberus. It¡¯s a fake Cerberus, the Great Sir Antoin will be able to deal with this imposter.¡± ---- The souls scattered as the giant dog leapt down and Antoin waved his hands and the skeletons and zombies started screaming, including the jet black skeleton which got absorbed into the ground before his screams subsided. The ground trembled once more as a giant three storey half-zombie half-skeleton abomination rose up wielding a giant rusty sword. It swung the sword at the giant dog which coughed up balls of fire which incinerated it into ashes as Antoin appeared next to Madenne. Dozens of golden runes sprung up around her, pushing him back, but he pushed through them and reached out towards her. She materialised several feet away, when Antoin also appeared and stretched out his hand piercing her flesh without leaving a wound. Grgregnndegewg. Antoin flinched as dozens of golden runes emerged from her cells and constricted his hand and unlike before, he couldn¡¯t simply phase through it. ¡°Crap,¡± he squeaked out before Cerberus turned one of its giant heads at him and let loose a fireball as Madenne cackled. One of the grey caps turned and screeched, ¡°Boss!¡± Another conjured up a phantasmal pyramid before turning listless and the foggy world trembled before Antoin with a half-blurry body emerged from the flames. Shortly after, seven of Elmhilt¡¯s golden arrows plunged into his body and all three heads released their wrath. One conjured up a world of ice. The second conjured up a world of fire. And the third conjured up an emerald realm. ¡°Damn you! Fuck! El-¡± Antoin screamed as his body broke down before abruptly stopping as a small fragment of a pumpkin dropped down. Madenne collapsed and panted as the giant dog began to break down into motes of light. Elmhilt stepped forward to deal with the spirits, and they turned and escaped into a golden globe which faded away, but not before one grey cap turned and looked at the pumpkin. Madenne rose up, clutching her waist and turned to the shocked group with Jake by her side. ¡°I¡¯m Madenne, I have come to rescue you from the monsters and to lead you to shelter to improve your chances of survival,¡± she said. Nathanial¡¯s frail voice asked, ¡°Shelter?¡± ¡°Yes. Like you, we were all brought here by One of Din¡¯s Seven Kings. I for instance was brought here by Rae Lord Ragnarok, and believe me when I say, that if you think Anarak is bad¡­ He¡¯s far worse.¡± She said. ¡°Ragnarok¡­ They mentioned that name before...¡± Nathanial muttered. ¡°Yes, they¡¯re both ¡®kings¡¯... Lords of the Rae. Over the years, countless millions¡­ No¡­ Billions of people have been brought here to Rae Dae from gods to mortals, even strange life-forms like sentient microbes.¡± She explained ¡°I see, I hope you can explain those to me in¡­ Detail, especially those microb¡­ No, everything. But first. What¡¯s this about a shelter? And who are you exactly? And how did you meet up with Jake?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°To survive against the elements and to trade, many of us set-up a colony known as Ytma, over the centuries it¡¯s grown into a large flourishing city. You don¡¯t have to worry about goblins or specters there, although¡­ The people aren¡¯t much better.¡± She said. ¡°Mm, I¡¯d imagine that. Still, I¡¯d rather deal with people than goblins, at-least we can communicate with them,¡± Nathanial said. ¡°True,¡± she laughed, ¡°I am Madenne, a level 50 and a member of Sienna¡¯s Vauleron. An organisation of powerful people of sorts, we have a lot of influence in Ytma, although there are a few even stronger¡­ and¡­ stranger than us.¡± ¡°Sounds interesting, what happened with Jake?¡± Nathanial asked. ¡°We ran into him in the mountains when we dealt with the bats.¡± She said. ¡°Ah, those things. How is it around there?¡± He asked. ¡°Dangerous. For you at-least. But, there¡¯s barely anything over Level 20 in this area, it should be safe with the three of us,¡± Madenne said and Nathanial furrowed his brows. ¡°...Alright, we¡¯ll go with you, unless anyone has any objections?¡± Nathanial asked, but the others just nodded and he sighed. ---- Who the hell is this woman? She saved Jake, so she can¡¯t be too bad but¡­ Who really knows with this hellhole. Still, we¡¯ll have a better chance than if we wandered around on our own, I¡¯d rather hang around in a ¡®safe¡¯ community than to constantly wrestle with goblins with dragons around every corner. Nathanial sighed as Gunaf smeared an oily cream on his wounds, the same Madenne put on herself after the battle. And off in the corner was Sean wielding a long sword and holding a pale white crystal. ¡°Damn you, Madenne. It¡¯ll take months for Sir Antoin to recover and I even had to waste a Fei Stone to hide from you,¡± he thought as he looked down at the crystal with countless words and a pumpkin within. His body trembled as Sean¡¯s soul rose up, but quickly dimmed away as the last remnants were consumed.