The Dragon Girl’s Ascension Vol 1
Chapter 1
The year 2007…
The New York City
skyline was once again dancing with lights. The sounds of the city were very
much a lullaby for those who lived within it. But on this day, many streets
were backed up due to a traffic accident.
A taxi had been hit
by a large dump truck. Accidents were a normal scene in New York, but what was
not so normal was the young woman and the man, named Jill and David Cambel, in
the back seat of the car. “Honey, hang in there….”
David, with blood
dripping from his head, covered in wounds, not caring for his own wellbeing,
grasped Jill's hand, who had been sitting next to him. His eyes filled with
tears as he gently stroked her face with great difficulty. He was still wearing
the pajamas he had on before rushing out of the house. But now those were in
tatters from the glass and metal that had cut into his body.
Jill was in no better
condition. She had a sharp piece of metal sticking through her chest. She wore
a pale pink one piece dress that was a bit too big for her, but it allowed her
swollen stomach to be covered. She could feel her life force fading.
They had been on the
way to the hospital—Jill’s water had broken, and her baby, whom she had been
waiting nine months for, was soon to be born. Both David and Jill were just
newly married and had returned from their honeymoon in
preparation for the birth of their first child—a child they had been looking
forward to.
The sound of sirens
rang through the air as the fire trucks finally reached the scene. They had
trouble pushing through the rows of cars that were stuck in traffic, but with
great difficulty, they had finally arrived.
Ricky Harris, the
onboard paramedic, climbed down from his truck with his medical kit strapped to
his shoulder and hurried over to the taxi that had half of one side crushed in
and was upside down in the road. He looked at the mangled mess of steel and fiberglass
with a furrowed brow.
The scene before him
was not a pretty sight. But he still pulled himself together and rushed over to
the car. The smell of gas filled his nose, which meant that the gas tank had
been ruptured. “We need to hurry….”
With a gloomy
expression, he looked into the car to see the taxi driver did not seem to be
conscious. He shook his head and looked in the back to see a man and woman
huddled together in bad shape. Especially the female who had a long piece of
metal stuck in her chest. “You two! Can you hear me!?”
“Is someone there!?
My-my wife! My wife is pregnant! Her-her water broke! Save our child! Save my
wife….” The man, who was still half awake, cried out the best he could. But
even just yelling these words was not an easy thing for him to do. He could
only grip his wife’s hand tightly as he watched her breathing grow more shallow
by the second. He was afraid. He was afraid of losing both his love and the
child they were going to bear. But in this situation, he knew that his wife
would ask for the child to be saved first. But he still held hope that both
could be saved.
With a lot of effort,
Ricky and the rest of his crew were able to get the young woman out of the car.
The man still had to wait to be pulled out. He had been pinned in the
collision. With one look, you could easily tell he had thrown himself on top of
his wife, trying to protect her. But at this time, the pregnant woman was
Ricky’s top priority. With the help of one of the other firefighters and a few
volunteers, he was able to pull the young woman out, place her on a stretcher,
and bring her near the fire truck.
He could see that her
vitals were not good. He took out his stethoscope and pressed it against her
belly. He saw a lot of blood in her lower half, so he was afraid that maybe she
had already had a miscarriage.
At that moment, a
loud explosion was heard, which drew Ricky's attention. He looked over to see
some of his crew lying on the ground. The gas that had been leaking out had
caught on fire and exploded. Now the entire rear of the vehicle was engulfed in
flames. He did his best to keep his calm as a pained expression formed on his
face. He was lucky he had been far enough away not to be caught in the blast.
He could only take a deep breath and check the mother-to-be’s vitals once more,
but he got nothing. There were no signs of life anymore.
“Damn it!” He cursed
out loud before checking for signs of life in the unborn child. Only when he
heard a faint beat did he feel that maybe there was some hope.
“Good… there is a chance.”
He let out a small, relieved sigh. As long as he could save the child….
◈◈◈
14 years later…
In a two-bedroom
apartment within the Gilroy tower at 232 East 54th Street, a young girl was
frantically rummaging through her desk drawer. When she could not find what she
was looking for, she slapped her hands on top of her desk and turned her head
towards the door.
“Dad! I can’t find my
scrunchie with the blue dragon pattern on it!” A young girl called out from her
room. The man in the living room, trying to finish cooking breakfast, sighed
and put the spatula in his hand down. He wiped his hands on his black apron and
lowered the heat of the stove.
“Dad!” The young
girl’s voice once more rang out, causing the man to look down at the coffee
table and sigh. He reached down and picked up the black scrunchie that had a
blue-scaled dragon embroidered into it and walked down the hall towards the
door that was slightly ajar.
“Desaray, you left it
in the living room last night.” The man, named Ricky Harris, announced as he
knocked on the door.
It was just the two
of them. It had been this way for fourteen years now, ever since that fateful
day when they entered each other’s lives. Back then, all the adults in the car
had died. Ricky had only managed to save one person from that car. The driver
and the father died due to their injuries and the flames. The mother passed in
front of his eyes. But the baby that resided inside her stomach was saved due
to him doing a c-section right there on the spot. He had
no choice. If he did not do it, the baby inside would have died. Luckily things
went well, and the little girl came out crying.
The little girl’s
tale did not end there. She was checked into the hospital, and when found to be
perfectly healthy, two weeks later, she was placed into an orphanage. She had
family, but they all refused to take her in for one reason or another.
They all gave
different reasons, such as they couldn’t afford it or they already had too many
kids. Not one of them seemed to care about the little girl who had been given a
chance at life after losing both her parents. Because his boss had found out
about it, and since Ricky was the one who had saved the girl, his boss had
explained the situation to him.
Ricky could not see
the little girl rotting away inside an orphanage. He knew they were
underfunded, and most of the kids would go unnoticed there and end up being
without anything when they reached eighteen.
People talk. He had
heard many stories when he looked into the place she was put into. Since that
was the case, he made a decision that would change his life forever. After
almost a month of paperwork and background checks—Ricky had gotten custody of
the little girl.
Life with a baby was
not easy. Luckily he had a supportive family. They helped him with everything
he needed when he was at work and taught him how to raise a child. And now
fourteen years later, the young girl who was pursing her lips looking at him
was fourteen years of age—her name, Desaray Cambel Harris. Her last name had
been Cambel to start, due to Ricky wanting to give her the choice later on what
she wanted to do, but, in the end, she had decided to
change it when she grew and understood things.
Desaray knew Ricky
was not related to her by blood. She had learned everything when she was ten
years of age. But she did not need to be blood-related to see him as her
father. He was a man that raised her from young and took her in. He spoiled her
and gave her a family which she might not have had. Her silver blond hair that
she had gotten from her mother, and her ice blue eyes that she had gotten from
her father, none of it looked like Ricky at all except for two things, her
personality and the things she likes, which she picked up from her father that
cared for her all these years.
Of course, she also
had her own likes and dislikes as well. But one thing stood out the most out of
everything—her love for dragons. You would think a young girl her age would be
giggling about some hot boy from a boyband group, but this was not the case for
Desaray. She loved dragons. She did not even try to hide it. If someone said
she was strange or tried to pick on her, she would put them in their place.
This was not a new obsession either. No, she had liked them since she was very
young, and even after all this time, this fact had never changed.
And this was all
thanks to Ricky, who had brought home a blue crystal dragon he found in a
store. He had thought it looked nice and was planning to turn it into a night
light for Desaray. She had just recently watched a movie about dragons at the
time and seemed to like them, so he had gotten this one which was a
cute-looking blue dragon. But before he could even do anything with it, she had
snatched it away and brought it to her room.
Since then, little by
little, he would buy her more things with blue dragons. He had once tried to
change the color to give it variety, but Desaray ended up crying and calling it
ugly. In order to appease her at that time, he had no
choice but to take her down to the store and find a blue one. But all of this
was fond memories for Ricky. He had never regretted adopting Desaray. He
couldn’t even imagine a life without her.
Ricky smiled as he
handed the scrunchie over, “Breakfast is almost ready, so hurry up.”
“Okay!” Desaray
smiled as she held the scrunchie in her hand. She went to turn but stopped
before turning around and looking out the door at her father’s retreating back.
“Dad! Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.”
Ricky smiled as he thought about how well she had grown. He hoped in the
future, she would go to college, learn what she wanted to learn, and live a
life of happiness. Maybe one day, he would be holding his grandbaby in his
arms. He did not know what the future held—but until the time she struck out on
her own, no, even after she struck out on her own, he would support her in
everything she did.
◈◈◈
“Bye, Dad!” Ricky
watched as his daughter walked out the door and off to school. Watching his
daughter growing up so quickly left him with a bit of melancholy, but he was
happy she was able to grow up healthy and happy.
He fell into thought
for a moment when he remembered something, “Desaray! I am working late today,
so make sure you come right home!”
“Got it!” Desaray
turned and backpedaled as she blew Ricky a kiss, then turned back around.
She got into the
elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor. She reached up and
touched her scrunchie and smiled. She felt blessed to have Ricky as a father.
She never felt sad with him around. But she did wonder if
he was holding himself back since he had never brought a woman home. She hoped
that he would one day get married and find happiness. She also would not mind
having a mother.
She looked up at the
numbers that were slowly changing with each floor until it came to a stop on
the twentieth floor. The door opened, and a young girl around Desaray’s age got
on. She had the same clothing as Desaray did. A plaid skirt and a blue blazer
marked with the Trinity School logo. She had a blue tie that was slightly
loosened around the collar of a white shirt. Her red hair fell down to the
middle of her back and was slightly curly.
When she saw Desaray,
her eyes lit up as she hopped over to her and gave her a hug. “Desa! I missed
you!”
“Becky, I think you
need to stop staying up so late. Your mind is rotting away. We were playing
World of Logia until late last night, so how can you miss me as if we have not
talked to each other for a long time?” Desaray asked. She went to a private school
that had its own bus that picked them up in front of their building. She did
not go to public schools, and she was glad for that since her school was a
school for smart kids. Her grades have always been good since she was young.
She had never had issues learning anything in school.
Because of this, she
knew her father wanted her to get the most out of her education and got her
into a super expensive private school. The Trinity School was located on the
Upper West Side of New York City and was about seventeen or so minutes from her
house.
“This and that are
different! Anyway, did you finish your homework? No, I know you did! Can I see
it on the bus!?” Becky was pleading. She had not finished
her homework because she got caught up in playing games before Desaray even
logged on.
World of Logia was a
game that Desaray had been playing in her free time for only one reason: they
had a dragon race. That race was a humanoid dragon, but it allowed you to
design the character how you wanted, and since Desaray had a love of
blue-scaled dragons, she made a character that looked kind of like her with
silver blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. Her exposed scales on her body and tail
were blue, along with her horns, that was almost a transparent blue. You could
say she was very happy with her work. She would need to be after spending
almost a week on designing her character alone.
And the reason she
even found out about this game was because of Becky. Becky was a gamer through
and through. Her favorite genres were role-playing games and MMOs. From one
look at her beauty, you would never take her as a gamer. She had green emerald
eyes and freckles on her pearly white cheeks. She was popular with the boys at
school and was also one not to hide her hobby in the slightest. But in the
school they went to, there was not much bullying, to begin with.
Desaray never
realized it, but she was also quite popular, but she had high standards when it
came to men. Of course, this was mainly because she was rating all the boys
around her against her father, whom she deemed the perfect man.
Desaray looked at her
friend and sighed as she reluctantly nodded her head. “Becky, you need to get
your priorities in order. I go straight home every day so I can get the
homework done and then do what I want after.”
“But…. I try! When I
get home, I put my books down on my desk, take off my blazer and then sit down
in front of my desk. I open my math book and then…. The
game across the room calls out to me and asks me to save some strange land from
the demon king, and well, they always tell us to help those in need, so I do!”
Most would say that Becky was just making up some strange story to justify her
actions, but she herself believes her own words, so in truth, she was not
lying. She truly believes the games called out to her.
And as her friend,
Desaray could only sigh. “Okay, well…. Maybe you should do your homework
someplace else then? You can always come to my house if you wish.”
“No, no…. If I went
to your house, I would end up not doing anything and distracting you.” Becky
was quite sure about this. Even Desaray had to nod her head at this.
The elevator reached
the bottom floor, and the two exited and walked towards the exit. They said
good morning to the attendant behind the counter and walked across the marble
floor of the entrance. Once they reached the sidewalk, they took a right and walked
toward the bus stop that was only a few feet away. The morning traffic slowly
progressed forward as it normally did. The smell of the city filled Desaray’s
nose, a familiar smell that she wished was just a bit cleaner.
Right as Desaray
passed the side alley next to her building that had air conditioners attached
to the side and a few dumpsters here and there, she stopped and looked down it
with a furrowed brow.
“Desa?” Becky looked
over at Desaray with questioning eyes. She wondered why her friend stopped when
the bus was right there.
Desaray was staring
down the alley. She could have sworn she saw something blue out of the corner
of her eye, but no matter how hard she looked, she could
not spot anything. Blue was a color she would always recognize and would never
mistake it for anything else. While she wanted to go investigate, she could not
since the bus had just arrived. Shaking her head, she slapped her cheeks,
wondering if she was slightly tired. “It’s nothing….”
As Desaray and Becky
got on the bus, in the same alley she had just been looking down, a small round
blue gelatin ball slowly edged out from behind a box with an Amazon logo. What
this creature, if it could be called as such, was, at this time, only a few
people would know….
◈◈◈
The dark blue bus
with the Trinity School logo on the side drove off from the bus stop with
Desaray and Becky on it. The two girls sat in the rear seats where they
normally sat. They were usually the first people on the bus, so they got first
dibs on seating. Some may wonder why they sat in the back and not the front or
the middle seats. This was because Becky needed to copy homework almost every
day.
Now this did not mean
Becky was a dumb girl by any means. She was always in the top five of her grade
during tests. She was just not someone who did her homework due to her gaming
habit. When she copied Desaray’s homework, it would always be much different
than the original, and she sometimes would even find mistakes as well and point
them out to Desaray, which Desaray was always grateful for.
The bus slowed to a
stop, and more kids got onto the bus. Becky poked Desaray and whispered into
her ear. “Jake is here. He is already coming this way.”
Desaray rolled her
eyes as she looked at the young boy, who was just fourteen himself. His black
hair was neatly trimmed, and his slightly tanned skin seemed to glow. One smile
from him could make a lot of girls fall in love. Sadly she had to admit he was
indeed handsome, but…. “I thought I already said no, right there on the spot
without needing to think about it. Jake, I will say this now, go find another
girl. I am not going to go out with you any time soon. If I recall correctly,
you have asked me out every year since middle school. One time I even punched
you in the face. Another time I threw you over my shoulder when you tried to
pull me back. There was also the time I kicked you between the legs. Shall I
reenact all three of those moments for you now?”
Jake squeezed his
legs together, just thinking of what happened back then. The first time they
met was in middle school. It was the first day Desaray had transferred in. Her
silver blonde hair and her ice blue eyes had put him in a daze when he first
saw her. He was even teased by his friends because he couldn’t stop staring at
her.
Because he was
younger, he was also much more impulsive and did not understand the meaning of
space, especially when it came to being between a male and a female. It
happened on their first meeting….
“Miss Harris, please
take a seat next to Becky and Jake.” The teacher, who was pregnant at the time,
motioned for Desaray to sit down. The classroom had a low student-to-teacher
ratio, and the seating was in a half-moon shape. This meant unless you sat at
the ends, you had a person on either side of you. While the desks were still
separated, it was still close enough that one could reach over and touch the
other with no problem.
While this was Jake
and Desaray’s first meeting, it was not Becky and Desaray’s first meeting. They
had been friends since they were young since they had lived in the same
building. It was because of Becky’s parents that Desaray was able to enter the
school due to a recommendation and even got a bit of a break on the tuition.
This was because Becky’s parents knew the school’s dean.
As for Jake, the
first incident between him and Desaray happened as soon as she sat down. She
had just put her blue backpack on the back of her chair and sat in her seat
when a hand suddenly grabbed hers. Ricky had Desaray take self-defense classes
since she was young, which she still attended to this day, so when she was
suddenly grabbed, she turned and….
“Ow!” Jake held his
nose as blood squirted out. He had been hit right on the tip of his nose.
“Don’t touch me!”
Desaray yelled out. Becky, who was sitting next to her, panicked and quickly
pulled Desaray back before she threw another punch. The teacher, who had just
sat down and was about to start class, looked at the
scene with eyes filled with disbelief.
“What is going on!?”
The teacher cried out as she stood up again.
“Teacher, Jake tried
to grab Desaray, and she hit him in self-defense!” Becky quickly explained. No
matter what, she would protect her best friend!
“Jake! Did you try to
touch a girl!?” The teacher, being female, immediately turned against the poor
young man who had just been punched in the face.
His eyes were
watering up as he tried to stop the bleeding. But he still answered in a pained
voice: “I just wanted to hold her hand….”
“You can’t touch
people without permission! Come on, I will take you to the nurse.” The teacher
sighed as she looked at the class. “Take out your math books and study page
twelve. I will test you when I get back!”
Thus, their first
meeting was met with Jake going to the nurse’s office and then to the hospital
to have his nose put back in place. Desaray had given it a good clean break.
The second and third time was not much different. He was thrown over Desaray’s
shoulder a month later when he tried to get her attention by grabbing her hand
and pulling her back. The third time he had tried to come on a little too
strong after watching a show that had a man pin a girl against the wall, which
ended up getting him sent to the nurse’s office once more. Since the last time,
though, he did not try to do anything to make Desaray mad, but he still tried
to get on her good side and confessed to her at least once or twice a year.
◈◈◈
“Why are you not
answering?” Desaray asked with a raised eyebrow. She had to admit she did find
Jake amusing.
“Desa, I think that
is enough. He might cry again.” Becky chimed in, which got an instant reaction
from Jake.
“I will not cry!”
Jake yelled out, his face growing red. But it was a fact that each time Desaray
beat him up, he did cry.
“Alright, I will
leave you alone. But I will say this one more time. The answer is no.” Desaray
stated firmly. She really did not want anything to do with Jake beyond
friendship. She knew Jake was handsome and had been chasing her since middle
school, but she could not see herself with anyone her age at this time. She
just wanted to live her current life without love as it would just make things
messy. She wanted to graduate and get into a good college in four years’ time.
Then and only then would she even think of love.
“Hey, why is the bus
not moving?” Becky suddenly cut in. This made Desaray look up toward the
driver’s seat. She had not noticed until now, but the bus had not moved since
picking Jake and the others up.
“Sorry, kids, there
seems to be some kind of traffic jam. I am not sure what is going on.” The bus
driver explained. He had been trying to get back into traffic, but no one was
moving.
“I hate to say it,
but you are right. I will call the school to have the kids walk. Sorry about this.”
The bus driver, who was a sixty-year-old old man, let out a sigh. He felt bad
for making the kids walk to school, but at this rate, they will end up being
late no matter what. Luckily the area was a high-end area where crime was less
likely to happen.
“Wait! I haven’t
finished copying the homework!” Becky cried out, but seeing Desaray starting to
get her things together, she had no choice but to follow along.
“When we get close to
the school, we can stop so you can finish up. Either way, we will end up being
late as things are now, so a few more minutes won’t hurt.” Desaray did not wish
to leave Becky in a tight spot, so she did not mind being a little later than
they were already going to be.
“That’s my bestie,
Desa!” Becky happily gathered her things and hugged Desaray’s arm as the two
girls alighted from the bus.
The sounds of horns
honking could be heard echoing through the streets. Even some people were
sticking their heads out of their car windows and yelling at the person in
front of them to move as if they could do anything.
“I wonder what
happened….” Becky pursed her lips. She hung on to Desaray’s arm, which was
normal for her when they were walking around the school. Desaray was also used
to this as well since Becky had always had this habit of clinging to her since
they were young.
“Girls look.” Jake
held his phone up, which caused Desaray and Becky to stop, along with a few of
the other kids who had gotten on the bus. They all gathered around to watch a
live video of what was happening down the street.
Chapter 2
On the screen, a young
woman with light brown hair that was tied up into a bun stood in front of the
camera with a News 7 microphone. Wearing a green business skirt, she stood out
compared to the gray backdrop around her. Behind her were three cars all smashed
together in a mangled mess. But the strange thing was that the cops and rescue
workers were standing around seemingly in a confused state.
“For those of you
joining in, there was an accident on the corner of East 53rd St and Park Ave.
What seems like a self-driven car accident at first glance is actually not.
From what I have been told, there were two cars and a delivery truck involved
in the accident. Two of which did not have a driver. The driver of the delivery
truck smashed into both cars as the cars sped through the red light at the same
time.
“What is still to be
determined is what happened to both drivers of the two cars. Both cars were
gas-powered cars and not electric or self-driven. There were no witnesses to
anyone getting out of either vehicle either. So the cause of the accident is
still unknown at this time. This is News 7. Back to you, Chuck.” The reporter
ended her live coverage without really telling much of anything.
“So what, we got
ghost cars now? She really did not explain things well.” Jake swiped his screen
and closed the app on his phone. He was a little confused as to what he was
just told.
Desaray and her
group, which consisted of Becky, Jake, and two others, began making their way
to school. Out of the last two of the group of five, one was named Yu Hou, a
chinese girl who lived in the same building as Jake. She was slightly chubby
with black hair and eyes, but she had a smile that made others smile with her.
She was a very cheerful girl, which allowed her to make friends easily.
And the second was a
young man with short brown hair and glasses that covered his hazel eyes. His
name was Mike Lanes. While somewhat of an outcast, he was not hated by any
means. He was just quiet and kept to himself. He was actually first in the
grade, which while somewhat gloomy, made him a secret crush for many of the
girls.
Well, not all the
girls. Becky did not care about the opposite sex unless it was a cute animated
guy in one of her games, and Desaray because she wanted nothing to do with love
until college or maybe even after that. She was actually not sure on this front
since she knew when you like someone, it just happens. She had seen enough
movies and heard stories from others about this topic, so she was not blind to
the idea of love. She just refused to deal with it at this time.
“This sucks!” Becky
complained as she leaned heavily onto Desaray, almost knocking her over.
“Becky, walk right!”
Desaray pinched Becky’s side, causing the girl to yelp out.
“So mean! I am tired
and have to walk!” Becky complained as she rubbed her side with her free hand.
“You should sleep
early then! I woke up at six this morning and got ready for school, and I went
to bed at the same time as you unless you stayed up a few hours more… well… I
should say that I know you did.” Desaray sighed. She wondered why Becky liked to
do this to herself.
“I just…. Ahhh!”
Becky was trying to answer when a car suddenly barreled onto the sidewalk
smashing between two parked cars and crashing into the front of the building.
Desaray had reacted in time and pulled Becky with her, jumping back and falling
to the ground in the process.
“That was close! Are
you two okay!?” Jake called out.
“Yeah, we are fine.
Yu, Mike, what about you two!?” Desaray rubbed her elbow that had gotten
scrapped up and looked left and right to see both of them on the ground a few
feet away. Mike was face down while Yu was on her back. From their position, it
was easy to tell that Mike had tried to protect Yu.
“Bl-Blood!” Becky
cried out. Blood was slowly pooling on the ground from Mike, who seemed to have
hit his head when trying to protect Yu.
“Jake, give me your
undershirt and call 911!” Desaray scrambled to her feet and hurried over to
Mike. She looked him over to see he had only one injury on his forehead. She
did not know if he had a concussion or not, so she did
not dare move him too much. Her father being a paramedic, was very helpful in
situations like this. She quickly checked his pulse to make sure he was still
alive before checking Yu’s pulse as well. When she saw that they were both
alive, she breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Ouch…” Yu slowly
came too and held her head. She looked to have bumped it as well, but not as
badly as Mike did.
“Don’t move. Just sit
there until the ambulance comes. Mike saved you, so when he wakes up, make sure
you thank him.” Desaray took the white shirt that Jake handed over to her and,
using her teeth, tore it into strips. She quickly wrapped the strips around
Mike’s head and kept his head elevated slightly with her knee.
“Desaray! There is no
driver here!” Jake yelled out. He still had the phone to his ear, seemingly
still trying to get through to 911.
“That’s all well and
good, but what is going on with the ambulance?” Desaray could care less whether
there was a driver or not. Right now, she was more worried about Mike.
“I can’t get through.
It’s just an all circuits are busy recording.” Jake seemed anxious. He kept
calling the same number over and over, but nothing was getting through.
Desaray bit the tip
of her finger as she fell into thought for a moment before turning to Becky and
calling out to her. “Becky, get my phone from my bag and call my father.”
“Huh? Right! On it!”
Becky was already panicking. Her entire body was shaking. Her hands fumbled
around just to unzip Desaray’s bag and rummaged through it to find her phone.
But sadly… “All
circuits are busy. Please try again later.”
◈◈◈
“Why is no one else
coming!?” Becky’s hands shook as she looked at Desaray in hopes she might have
an answer.
“This is strange.
It’s like no one is around….” Jake did not understand why no one was coming
over to help or even inspect what was going on. When he looked around, he saw a
few people who were running in the opposite direction. The fact that they were
running made him even more confused. But he was starting to have a bad feeling.
“Desa, I think we need to leave.”
“Huh? We can’t. I
can’t leave Mike!” Desaray was keeping Mike’s head propped up on her knees,
which were red from kneeling on the ground, and keeping her finger on his
pulse. It was painful since rocks were pushing into her skin, but she was
waiting for someone to come over and help out. At the same time, she was trying
to calm down, but Jake was not helping.
“Then take him with
us! Everyone else is running from something!” Jake yelled out. He kept seeing
people passing by. They were completely ignoring what was happening. Cars lined
the streets, but even those people who were stuck in traffic were getting out
of their cars and running away. It was like a scene out of some kind of
apocalyptic movie.
“Guys…. I think it’s
too late….” Becky’s trembling voice entered their ears. Desaray turned to look
at her best friend to see her eyes wide with fear, her finger pointing towards
the car that had crashed into the wall.
Desaray turned her
head to see something sitting on top of the car. A humanoid that was short with
green skin and had pointed ears along with a large pointed noose with a sharp
elongated chin. It licked its lips and smiled at Desaray, showing its black teeth
and purple tongue while squinting its beady black eyes.
She did not know what
to do, she looked at her friends to see them all frozen in fear and knew things
were not good. “Jake, take Yu and Becky and get the hell out of her! I will
bring Mike!”
“Ri…Right!” Jake
snapped out of it and quickly helped Yu to her feet before half dragging her to
Becky and taking Becky’s hand, pulling her along. Becky did not want to go as
she tried to pull back from Jake, but he refused to let go. “Becky cut it out!”
“I can’t leave Desa!”
Becky yelled out. But Jake still dragged her away. She turned to look at
Desaray, her best friend since they were little, to see her smile at her before
turning her attention to Mike. That smile she knew well. It was her’ everything
will be okay’ smile. That smile was enough for her to stop resisting and allow
Jake to lead the way. She could only hope Desaray could escape too.
Desaray gritted her
teeth and stood up while pulling Mike up with her. She was happy that Mike was
skinny. This made him light enough that even she could carry him. But as she
stood up, the thing on top of the car that was stuck in
the wall suddenly let out a shrill scream. “GREEEGI!”
Before Desaray could
even take a step, she felt something heavy hit her back, causing her to cry
out. “Ahhh!”
A sharp pain jolted
through her body as she stumbled forward. She lost her grip on Mike, dropping
him to the ground. Sadly things did not end there. She felt something pulling
at her skirt, causing her to kick backward with her foot, landing it solidly on
its target before swinging her body around to see the green humanoid tumble to
the ground, trying to stand back up. Now that she could get a better view of
what it was, her eyes widened in shock since she had seen such a creature
before. “A goblin!?”
She hated to admit
it, but she understood why it tugged on her skirt just now. Goblins are
mythical creatures that normally show up in fantasy stories, movies, and TV.
While sometimes they are depicted as a race of intelligent beings, they are
more known for their savagery and their need to breed. With one look, she could
tell this one was the latter. The goblin had a brown cloth wrapped around its
waist, but there was a certain part sticking up that told Desaray that if she
got caught, it would be very, very bad.
She looked down at
Mike, who was still unconscious. Blood was soaking through the bandage she had
put on him. She had no idea if he was even still alive at this point. Right
now, although she wished she could get him out of here, she first had to deal
with the situation at hand. She did not dare take her eyes off the goblin for
too long as it slowly got up.
She was wracking her
brain, trying to come up with some kind of plan to deal with this situation. “I
guess there is only one way to make sure we both live….”
A glimmer of light
caught her eye when she looked towards her bag. A pair of scissors had been
dumped out when Becky had gone through it. Her eyes flashed. Just now she had
barely kicked the goblin hard, yet it went flying back. This meant she could
probably win in a fight if she were to use the scissors to kill it. Then she
could escape with Mike. “Option two is the only option….”
Taking a deep breath,
Desaray rushed forward….
◈◈◈
“Jake, are we just
going to leave her!?” Becky, who had long been dragged around the corner and
into an entryway, wanted to kick Jake back out since he was not being a man!
“Desa said she would
come, so she will. She told me to keep you two safe, and that is what I am
doing. For now, rest in here and hope nothing comes.” Jake replied. He could
not stop shaking. He had never seen a monster before. He couldn’t help but be
scared. So when Desaray told him to go, he did not hesitate. He wanted to leave
as fast as he could. Even if he was told to return, he did not dare to. He knew
he was being a wuss, but he couldn’t help it. He was scared…
Becky had tears
streaming down her now red cheeks from being both mad and anxious at the same
time. She snorted and kicked Jake in the shin, causing
him to cry out in pain and crouch on the ground before opening the door. But
before leaving, she turned and looked back at Jake with disdain. “I am so glad,
Desaray never accepted your feelings. As a boy who always chased after her, you
don’t even have the balls to go back and try to help her. You do not deserve
her and never will.”
Becky left the
entryway, slamming the door behind her, leaving behind a dumbfounded Jake. He
held his shin and looked at the door that was now closed, blocking all view of
the outside world with a blank expression. He did not know what to say. He
could not say anything. He was afraid for his life. He tried to act tough but
now…. A hand gently tapped his shoulder. He turned to see Yu looking at him.
“No matter what she said, you still took the two of us out of there, so I thank
you since I could not have escaped on my own, but….”
Yu looked up at Jake
with her big round eyes and continued: “Becky was right. You don’t deserve
Desaray. She would have gone back for you if she was in your situation…. I am
not trying to denounce you. I myself am too scared to leave this place as well,
but I would have thought you would have gone back for her.”
Jake sat there
staring blankly at Yu, unable to say a word. There was no argument to be made.
If he truly liked Desaray, he could have gone back for her, but to him, his
life was much more important, which is why he could only watch as Becky left.
On the outside, Becky
had already made her way to the corner and stopped at the edge of the building.
The streets were filled with abandoned cars. The sounds of people going about
their daily business were replaced with the strange sounds of creatures she had
never heard before. These sounds sent shivers down her spine as if she was
watching some kind of horror movie. The eerie silence
that was only broken by the sounds was truly terrifying.
Becky gulped a mouth
full of saliva as she finally worked up the courage to peek around the corner.
When she did, her eyes almost dropped out of her head at the scene before her.
A few minutes
earlier…
Desaray ran over to
the scissors right as the goblin charged at her once more. She dodged the
goblin that had dived right at her, quickly picked up the scissors, and spun
her body around. This time she did not wait for the goblin to get up. Instead,
she jumped forward, pinned the goblin to the ground, and stabbed the scissors
in her hand into its neck over and over. Purple blood squirted into the air
splattering on her face and school uniform, but even while covered in blood,
Desaray continued stabbing the goblin until it finally stopped moving. Her arms
had been scratched by the goblins claws and were now bleeding badly, but she
did not care. She had killed the thing that had attacked them.
She gasped for air as
her adrenaline slowly stabilized. She had exerted herself way past the point of
anything she had done before. She looked down at her arms which were burning
with pain and clenched her teeth. She slowly stood up as blood dripped from her
arms.
Desaray had just
gotten to her feet when a blue transparent window suddenly popped up in front
of her, causing her to fall back on her butt and cry out in pain. She had no
idea if the blue window in front of her was real or not. She stretched out her
right hand, extending her index finger, and poked at the screen. “Ouch!”
[System
Initializing…]
[System Online….]
[System Now Undergoing
DNA Scan….]
[Scanning…..]
[Scanning…….]
[Scanning……..]
[Scanning……….]
[Scanning Complete….]
[First Stage Evolution
Will Now Commence…..]
“Huh? Evolution!?
Whaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!” Desaray let out a blood curdling scream of pain as she
felt her entire body being ripped to shreds.
Becky, who was still
watching from the corner, was amazed by how her best friend killed the monster,
but when she heard Desaray suddenly cry out in pain, she knew she could no
longer just stand there watching. She did not even hesitate to run over to her
side. “Desa!!!”
◈◈◈
Becky stopped a few
feet away from Desaray. Her friend since childhood was now writhing on the
ground in pain. Her blood-covered arms had huge gashes in them that went down
to the bone. But Becky somehow knew that Desaray’s pain was not due to these
wounds. It was something else that was causing her to kneel over and hug her
body. Becky reached out with her hand and took a step
forward while gently calling out to her best friend: “Desa? Ahh!”
Becky was launched
backward as a surge of energy suddenly spread out from Desaray’s body. She
tumbled to the ground scraping up her arms and legs as she skidded across the
ground on her side. Although she was in pain, Becky was still more concerned
about Desaray. She pushed herself up and looked in the direction her friend was
in, but she could not see Desaray anywhere. All she saw was what looked like
blue fog swirling around the spot that Desaray was last in. “Wha!? What is
going on!? Desaray!”
Within the blue fog,
Desaray was curled up in the fetal position. Her entire body felt as if it was
being broken apart. Her muscles, her bones, and even her skin. It all seemed to
be breaking down and reconstructing itself. Normally one would pass out due to
shock, but Desaray was still wide awake. She could see her hands and arms
starting to change. They were getting smaller and turning blue. She had no idea
what was going on, but she felt as if the world around her was starting to
change.
She had no idea how
much time had passed, but the pain in her body was starting to subside. She
could now get a decent look at what was going on around her. In front of her
was still the blue transparent screen, but more than that, there was a wall of
blue fog encircling her. “What is….. Hmmm? What the hell is wrong with my
hands!?”
Desaray looked down
at her hands… no these were not hands but claws. While the palms of her claws
were a light blue color, the top part was covered in ice blue scales. She
looked down at herself to see that even her body was no longer the same, and
her line of sight had adjusted to be a bit wider. “Hmmm? What’s this?”
She hunched over to
inspect it even closer, only to see it move slightly with her body movement.
“Is this a tail? Wait! If I can feel that, and it’s a tail, then do I?”
Reaching up with her
claws, Desaray touched the top of her head. She felt two small protrusions
sticking out of it about two inches long. She was now sure she had turned into
something incredible. Just as she was getting her bearings, the blue fog finally
dissipated and finished entering her body. A dinging sound could be heard in
her ears, causing her to look at the blue screen in front of her.
[Evolution
Complete….]
[All Systems Online…..]
[Welcome To The World
Order System]
[Force Opening Status
Window]
{World Order System}
[Name]: Desaray Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 1
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 50/50
[MP]: 10/10
[Skill Points]: 0
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)}
“This…. I knew it!”
Desaray yelled out as she jumped up into the air before slumping back down. “I
love dragons. I love ice dragons the most, but….. I wanted to be a dragon girl!
Not a full-fledged dragon! No wait…. It says here I can evolve, so maybe…..
Maybe there is still a chance…. But more importantly. I need to check on Mike
and then…. How am I supposed to go back like this…?”
“Desaray? Is that
you?” A soft yet confused sounding voice came from Desaray’s side. She turned
to see Becky slowly getting up off the ground staring at her in shock and with
a bit of fear in her eyes.
“Ah…. If I told you I
was, would you believe me?” Desaray lowered her head. Her shoulders and tail
slumped slightly. She had no idea how to explain things since they all just
happened. She herself was still trying to grasp her head around it. She had gone
from a healthy fourteen-year-old girl to a monster. This was not normal, no
matter how you looked at it. It was like something straight out of a fantasy
story, yet then again, so were goblins, and there was a dead one lying on the
ground just a few feet away from her. One she had killed herself.
“Uh….” Becky was
highly confused. She could see Desaray’s uniform spread out around the small
figure in front of her. The figure had ice blue scales covering its entire body
except for its underbelly, which was a light blue, and two transparent light
blue horns on top of its head. And the voice alone was very much familiar but….
“I have a mole somewhere on my body, and only you and my mother….”
“Shhh!” Becky’s
cheeks blushed as she ran over and tried to cover the blue figure’s mouth. But
when she realized that it was not a human head, she slowly put her hands down
and hugged the figure. “Desa!”
Tears streamed down
Becky’s cheek. Her best friend had become a lizard! “Desa, how did this
happen!? You became a lizard thing!”
“I am not a lizard! I
am a dragon!” Desaray snorted as she pushed Becky away. She sighed and looked
down at herself. “I do not know. As soon as I killed the goblin, a blue screen
popped up in front of me, spewing all kinds of things, and then I was overcome
with pain. The next thing I knew, I was like this. I have no idea what is going
on, but I now have a game hud and even a status screen.”
“This….” Becky was
unsure how to take all of this, but she was slightly jealous if this was the
case. Well, about everything except the pain part.
“Anyway, we can talk
more, but first, we need to move. I don’t know how, but I can sense quite a few
things heading this way, and they are not human. I am too short to carry Mike
now, so you will need to help pull him out of here. His chest is still going up
and down slightly, so he is alive…. I will get his feet. Just lead us to where
Jake and Yu are.”
“Okay.” Becky nodded.
She knew this was the right move. She walked over to Mike, knelt down and put
her arms under his armpits, then pulled him up. He was heavy for her, but it
soon felt lighter when she saw Desaray lift his legs.
◈◈◈
A few minutes later…
“Heavy…” Becky was
struggling. She had all the weight on her side while Desaray was holding Mike’s
feet. But she knew with Desaray’s current size, it would be hard for her to
carry him without him dragging. Even now, his midsection was bumping off the ground.
And this was with Desaray trying to hold his legs up over her head!
“Becky, want me to
take the front? I think I might be stronger than I was before.” Desaray
offered. She was sure she could at least lift his shoulders up off the ground,
and the legs would be lighter for Becky.
“No… I got it….”
Becky bit her lip and exerted more strength. She was only going around the
corner! Although she was not looking forward to seeing Jake, not after all she
had said to him. But then again, if he did come back, would Desaray end up in
her current state?
“Okay~!” Desaray was
getting used to her new body. It did not feel as weird to be walking with such
short legs. However, she did find it funny how she could
walk on her hind legs without issue. She also liked the fact that she did not
need clothes. It was kind of refreshing, as if something new was awakening
inside her. Of course, she herself had not realized this yet.
“This is it,” Becky
announced as she motioned with her chin towards the door. The building itself
was an office building. It was not just one company but many who had their
offices here.
“Go get Jake and Yu
and have them help you bring Mike in. I need to go back for my stuff. Umm…. Try
to give them a small run down on my current condition. I don’t want to scare
them….” Desaray wanted her things since she had some stuff she always kept on
her that she got from her father, which she cherished. She really hoped he was
okay. But besides that, she was not ready to meet with the other two yet. Becky
was one thing since she saw it happen, but Jake and Yu did not. She wondered if
they would despise her for becoming a monster….
“I will… And Desa,
don’t worry. I will stand on your side no matter what.” Becky could tell
Desaray seemed a bit hesitant about meeting others. While she put on a strong
front, Becky knew right now Desaray was having many thoughts and worries
running through her mind.
“Thanks.” Desaray’s
lips curled up into a smile that looked slightly frightening since she had
razor-sharp teeth in her mouth, but it was a genuine smile.
She waved at Becky
and took off back around the corner. She could feel a few monsters almost upon
her. She wanted to make sure nothing happened to her friends so she hoped she
could fight in her current form. Her status menu was still up since she had yet
to have time to figure out how to close it, but she could see that her ice
breath spell was not a spell but more of an innate skill.
It did not even require MP, which, if she was correct, stood for Mana Points.
“Gigii!” A familiar
sound entered Desaray’s ears as she turned the corner. A green figure was
poking at the dead goblin on the ground. “Another one?”
She couldn’t help but
frown, but she knew she had to get rid of it since it was actually very much
one of the worst monsters out there for females. She wondered how many people
have suffered already due to these green disasters. “I can do this…. I think….”
Desaray had no idea
how to use her ice breath yet, but she still had claws and a tail. If she used
the martial arts she has been learning since young, she should be able to deal
with another goblin with ease.
She lowered her body
and got on all fours. To her surprise, she found that this was actually quite a
comfortable position. After taking a deep breath, she charged forward. Her
little body shot out like a rocket, much faster than she had ever expected. So
fast that the goblin, who was not paying attention, only got to look up in
shock before it was plowed into and smashed into the ground. Desaray stabbed
her claws into its chest, piercing its skin easily and breaking through the
bones of the goblin’s ribcage as if they were made of butter. She clenched her
fists around a soft object within and crushed it without mercy. She could only
guess that this was the goblin’s heart.
[You Defeated A
Goblin Scout]
[Experience Points
Gained….]
“Oh? So I can get
experience by killing these things…. That’s good to know since I will need to
work on leveling up to see if I can get a humanoid form at some point.” Desaray
could only bet on this assumption and hope it was true.
She had no idea how long it would take to reach level 20, but she hoped it
would not take too long. Of course, she would need to first figure out the ins
and outs of how things are done before she could go grinding.
With a sigh, Desaray
stood up and looked at her blood-soaked hand. Purple blood dripped from it, but
she did not feel sickened by it at all, which she found strange. She had just
crushed a living thing’s heart with her bare claws, but she felt nothing from
it. She wondered if this was because of her race change. “Let’s just hope I do
not have to kill a human… Anyway….”
Desaray wanted to
clear her thoughts since they were going down a bad path. She looked at her
stuff that was strewn about and sighed once more. She slowly walked over and
began collecting her things. She made sure to grab her clothes in case she
suddenly woke up naked the next day.
She had no idea what
was going on with the world right now. But she felt that she would need to get
Becky to kill something to see if she would end up getting a system as well. If
she does, good, if not, then she would need to protect her until they could
meet up with her father.
Chapter 3
Becky was currently
checking Mike’s pulse while Jake and Yu stood at the side. Once she felt it was
still strong, she let out a sigh of relief. “I am not as good as Desa but he
should be fine for the time being. But I need to tell you two something.”
“Where is Desa? You
said she helped you bring Mike here, right? Why did she not come in?” Jake
asked. He knew he had no right to chase after her anymore since he could only
think about himself when it came to protecting his own life. He had gladly
sacrificed her without even thinking about turning around to go back to help
her.
“While I have a lot
to say about your worry, she is fine for the most part. It’s just that she is
ummm…. Not exactly like she used to be.” Becky found it hard to explain. People
would normally think she was nuts if she had said anything, to begin with, but
now…. “After she killed the goblin, she transformed into a baby dragon of
sorts.”
“What!? Becky, this
is no time to be joking around!” Jake yelled out. He wondered just what the
hell got into this girl for her to be making jokes at this time. He stepped
forward and raised his hand. He was about to smack her and try to knock some
sense into her.
“If you don’t believe
me, then fine, but you will see. She will be back after she gathers her things.
But let me warn you. She is only about four feet tall and
does not look like a human in any way. If you make any rude comments, scream,
or make her feel bad, at this time, I do not think I would have an issue
killing you for real.” Becky snorted, she was not afraid of Jake at all. Although
she was making a baseless threat, it made Jake’s face pale. As she had thought,
Jake was too much of a wuss to even think that her words were false. He even
stumbled back a few steps just because of her words.
“Jake, take it as the
truth for now. We will find out as soon as Desa returns. Also, a man who raises
his hand to a woman is no man. Unless you have a good reason to, never raise
your hand to a girl.” Yu pulled Jake back, her words cold. She could understand
if Becky was hitting him and he was doing it in self defense but he was about
to do it just because he got mad, which made her think even less of him.
Human nature can be
funny. During stressful times people’s true nature will be exposed. A person,
male or female, who you had thought was a good and upright person, could end up
being a selfish person who only cares about themselves. While it is true that
no one wishes to die, and only some are willing to sacrifice themselves for
others whether it is for love or another reason, it still did not sit well for
Yu to have Jake, who would not even go back to check on whether or not Desaray
was alive or not to get mad over Becky’s words.
Yu also thought that
Becky’s words were hard to believe, but she did not seem to be saying them in a
joking manner. Because of this, she wanted to wait and see for herself if
Desaray had actually turned into a dragon, as Becky had said.
Jake, on the other
hand, did not want to believe a single word of it. He felt Becky was messing
with him since she hated him now. He knew he had no place to be criticizing
anyone, but he still worried about Desaray. Just because
he already realized he was not in love with her, he still wished for her
well-being.
“Why does it seem
like you are all attending a funeral? Who died?” A voice came from the side,
causing everyone to turn their heads.
Two sets of eyes
landed on the short blue figure that looked like an oversized lizard standing
on two legs with a backpack slung over its shoulder. Jake and Yu’s expressions
were that of shock. Yu had her mouth open wide enough that an egg could fit
into it and Jake’s eyes were so wide that they might just fall out. Only Becky
smiled brightly as she walked over to the blue figure and patted her head.
“Glad you can make it but…. Did you run into trouble?” Becky noticed the blood
on Desaray’s claw.
“Ah yeah, I killed
another goblin and got some experience points. And don’t pat my head! I am not
a pet!” Desaray swatted Becky’s hand away, causing the girl to giggle.
“Hahaha! Couldn’t
resist. But another goblin, huh?” Becky frowned. She was no stranger to goblins
either. But more than that, she really wanted to know what was going on. “Did
you happen to see anything strange, anything that might tell us why these
monsters are appearing or, more like, why you suddenly changed into a dragon?”
“No idea, but the
streets are semi-quiet. I can hear screams off in the distance followed by
roars, so who knows what is actually going on? Is it just this area that turned
into some kind of fantasy story, or is it something that is happening all over
the world? You would think the army would be out already, or at least the
police. But we have not heard a single bit of gunfire.” Desaray really found
too many things strange. But before she could do more, she had to figure out
her system and how it worked. She was sick of the screen
blocking her view. She hadn’t realized she was already used to being a dragon.
“Desaray…?” Jake
spoke hesitantly. He was unsure what he should say in this situation.
“Hmmm? Oh, if it
isn’t Mr. Scaredy Cat!” Desaray gave a dragony smirk. She had heard everything
from Becky already, so she was ready and willing to pick on him.
◈◈◈
“That’s a little
unfair, isn’t it!?” Jake cried out. But he did not say anything more. He had no
right to argue. He slumped down onto the floor and hugged his knees, not
wanting to be looked at.
Desaray smugly lifted
her snout in the air before turning serious once more. “How’s Mike?”
“Still asleep. His
pulse is strong as far as I can tell from what you taught me before.” Becky
replied as she watched Desaray walk over to Make and begin checking his pulse.
They were in the
front entryway of one of the office buildings not far from the school bus stop,
where Mike, Jake, and Yu got on. Because it was an office building, only the
front door was unlocked, so they could not go any further without a card key to
get inside. It was the area where the mailboxes for each office were held.
The carpet on the
floor was nothing more than an industrial version that was easy to clean. It
looked to have been cleaned just recently if you did not count the new stains
that the four of them had added to it. With white painted walls and wood trim,
it looked neat and tidy as any entryway could be.
Desaray frowned as
she let go of Mike’s wrist. “I can’t be sure what is going on. His pulse seems
fine from what I can tell, as Becky said, but other than that, unless we get
him to a hospital, I do not think we will know what is really wrong with him. The
only issue is that there is barely anyone around and monsters all over the
place. Which means we will need to bring him there ourselves. The closest one
is the Lenox Hill Hospital which is on the other side of Bethesda Terrace…. We
are currently on West and 67th St. It will take us about thirty minutes or more
on foot, rough estimate, if we rush. But if we run into monsters, it will take
longer. Which means….”
Desaray looked up at
Jake and pondered for a moment. “Jake, if you want to redeem yourself, then you
will need to help us move Mike unless you are willing to see your friend suck
in a coma like this for who knows how long.”
Jake lifted his head.
He really did not want to leave the safety of the building, but…. He looked
over at Mike and bit his lip. It was not like he could stay here forever, he
knew this, but he was still scared of the unknown. He took a deep breath and stood
up. “I-I will carry him.”
This only fired Jake
up more to do this task, as he was already annoyed with Becky from the earlier
argument. “I won’t drop him!”
“Alright, no
fighting, we will need to work together. I will take point with Becky watching
the sides. Yu will follow behind Jake and assist him if needed. But before we
go, I need to look at a few things. We will also need to search for weapons
outside. There are plenty of cars, so we can just loot them for anything useful
to protect ourselves with.” Desaray was trying to be a realist. The situation
was not a situation where they could just abide by common laws. Anything went
now, and the most important thing for them at this time was protection.
“Then just tell us
when you are ready.” Becky had no problems with Desaray’s plan. She just hoped
Jake would not wuss out again. No one else had an issue with Desaray’s plan
either. This allowed Desaray some time to figure out her new menu thing.
She sat down next to
the door with her hind legs crossed under her as she poked at the menu screen
for a few moments before muttering: “Close status window….”
She had no idea if it
would work, but luckily, it did. “So the window is voice activated? Open status
window.” Once more, the status window appeared in front of her. With a sigh of
relief, Desaray closed the menu again before standing up and going to open the
door but was quickly stopped by Jake. “Where are you going?”
“Wait, so you were
not lying!? You really have a game-type system?” Jake asked. He thought it was
a joke!
“Why would I lie
about something so stupid? Do you think I like looking mentally insane? Luckily
I can open and close the menu now, or I would have to live the rest of my life
with a blue transparent screen in front of me that only I can see. Jake, I did
not realize you thought so little of me. Once we get to the hospital, you can
stay there and watch over Mike. At least there, you will be safe. I hope
anyway….”
◈◈◈
Desaray was unsure of
many things, and she could only assume that they would be safe at the hospital.
But with monsters that do not care for human life or have any fear of a weapon,
this might not be the case. What bothered her most about this situation was the
lack of people. They lived in New York, one of the most populated cities in the
country, yet there were so few people. Take this office building they were
currently holding up in, there was no one around. Not a single person has come
to the first floor to check things out. There were two cameras in this
entryway. You would think they would have come out a long time ago to check on
the kids that were taking refuge here. While it was human nature to protect
one’s self, this did not mean everyone was like that.
Desaray stood on the
front stoop of the stairs and looked around. She could see something across the
street sniffing around. It looked like a gray wolf but much bigger than any
wolf she had seen on tv. She did not move and waited for
it to pass by before stepping down off the stoop. She had no idea how strong
the monster was, and right now, she did not wish to find out until she
understood her own abilities.
She opened her menu
and took a look at what she had access to. She quickly spotted a button next to
the skills title. She reached out with her claw and poked the button, causing a
new menu to appear. “So this is the skill menu?”
Desaray was actually
quite happy to see this menu. She hoped she could find something useful in it.
“Let’s see. I can learn a lot, from attack skills to passive skills. Some mixed
with magic, some not. But each one costs skill points which I do not have,
sadly….” Desaray let out a sigh. She had two skills, but from what she could
tell, they did not use mana of any kind, it seemed. If this was the case, then
she might be able to use her ice breath for as much as she wanted.
“These skills all
state mana cost, and those that don’t do not have any mana cost…. Oh, the king
of all skills is in this list as well.” Desaray looked at the skill named
Appraisal. This was a skill she wanted very much since it was a skill that
would tell her what things were. In any game that did not do it automatically,
it was a must have skill.
“It costs only a
single skill point, so I will get that and a few other single point skills.
There is even a basic first aid skill here which can heal minor wounds.”
Besides basic first aid and appraisal, she found another one called toughened
skin and everyday magic. Everyday magic cost two skill points, but it allowed
her to cast a few spells that one would need in everyday life. This included
spells called spark, cleanse, drink, dig, and dry. Just from the names alone,
she could figure out what they did.
“Okay, now to try out
this ice breath.” Desaray jumped up on top of a car and looked down the road.
She was not too sure how she was supposed to activate the skills, but she found
voice activation worked for her menu, so she decided to try it like that. She
took a deep breath, aimed her snout toward the middle of the road, and said:
“Ice Breath!”
Cold air began to
build up around Desaray’s mouth. A bright blue ball of cold energy slowly began
to form. Ice formed in the air, and after about five seconds, a blast of cold
icy air shot out in a cone in front of her. The further out it went, the wider
the range was. But the distance was about thirty feet. The road that was caught
at the edge of the blast of cold air had a sheen of white and blue ice covering
its surface.
As the energy
dissipated, Desaray closed her mouth and pressed her scaly lips together, and
opened her menu. She looked at her stats to see her mana did not go down at
all, which meant this was an innate skill. “So I don’t need mana to use it, but
its charge time is around five seconds. It lasts for about twenty seconds.
Although, this is only at level 1. So if I level it up, the time and the
duration might last longer.”
Desaray jumped off
the car she was on and walked back towards the building where the others were.
She figured she could try to charge it while fighting, but in order to test
this out, she would need to do so while in a fight. She hated to admit it, but
she was actually kind of excited that she was able to use
all these new abilities. To her, what she just used was magic, something she
could only see in games or on tv, but now…. Her scaly lips curled up slightly.
“While the situation is not good, it is not all that bad either. I just hope my
father will recognize me….” This was the only fear she had at this time….
◈◈◈
“Alright, so here is
the deal. We will make our way through the terrace and then head to the
hospital. If it is safe, you guys can stay there. I still need to go to my
house and then to Lower Manhattan to try to get in contact with my father,
depending on where he is at this time. But with the way things are, my guess is
he is probably out on a call or locked down in the fire station. If he is still
alive, that is.” Desaray laid down her plans for what she was going to do.
However, the last few words were hard to say for her. She was very worried
about her father, and while she was unsure if he would recognize her, she hoped
that he would at least not try to attack her.
“Wait, you are just
going to leave us? What happens if the hospital is not safe!?” Jake cried out.
Whether he realized it or not, he could only see Desaray as a means of staying
alive. In his mind, he needed her protection if he wanted to make it through
this situation.
“What happens after
that is not my problem. Look….” Desaray looked at the other three with narrowed
eyes. “Out of everyone here, the one I am closest with is Becky. If it came
down to one of you and Becky, I would save her first. I am not trying to be mean
or anything like that, but I am being realistic, that is just how it is. You
save those who are family first. If it is possible, I would help Yu next, then
Mike. Jake would be last. I literally have one skill I
can use right now, and that is my ice breath which takes five whole seconds to
even activate. In that time, you can be killed or worse.”
“What kind of crap is
that!? You would save me last!? Desaray, all these years I have been chasing
you, I mean so little to you?” Jake did not like hearing he would be first to
die no matter what if it came to others. He disliked hearing this the most. He
did not want to die, and Desaray was the only thing that could keep him alive.
“Are you an idiot?
Why would I risk my life for someone who was not even willing to come and check
if I was alive or not? Becky came even though she was scared out of her mind.
Do you think she wanted to die!? Do you think she wanted to go out into the unknown?
No, she did not, but she still did. She even came over to me and treated me
normally, even when I turned into a dragon. If she did not tell you ahead of
time, what would you have done? Tried to kill me? Run for your life? Jake,
don’t screw with me. I do not owe you anything. As for feelings, there were
never any feelings beyond friendship. I never liked you more than a friend I
went to school with. That was it.
“Whether you want to
hear what is coming out of my mouth or not is up to you. If you prefer to stay
here hiding until you starve to death, then stay here. If you want to help get
Mike to the hospital, then carry him on your back, and I will do what I can to
protect you until we get to the hospital. But no matter what, I will go try to
find my dad. He is all I got. But as I said, if it comes down to you, Yu, or
Becky and Mike, I would save them first before you.” Desaray looked at everyone
there before turning around. Jake went silent, he could not argue with Desaray
since he was not as good with words as her. He could only clench his fists,
grit his teeth, and hope things would go smoothly. Desaray took
a few steps towards the door when she heard Yu suddenly speak up.
“Desa is right, you
know. We should be thankful that she is willing to go as far as she is. As of
right now, we do not know what else is out there besides the goblins and the
wolf Desa told us about when she came back. If we are attacked, I would understand
her helping Becky before me since I would do the same if I was in her position.
I would save the one closest to me first. It is not like we are heroes of some
kind of fantasy movie. This is real life. There is no plot armor that will save
us from dying.” Yu lifted her head and looked at Desaray with her big eyes and
smiled as she continued: “So thank you. Thank you for doing so much when you do
not need to.”
“Hehe….” Becky
giggled. “Desa is just a big softy as it is. But I will say she is right. I
would do the same. I would save her before any of you. But that does not mean
we will not try to help those we can if we are not in trouble ourselves. Plus,
if we help Desa kill a monster, maybe we can gain systems as well. If this is
like a game, then as long as we get a hit in, we may be able to gain a system
like Desa has. Although, I am not sure if we will change as she has.”
“I was thinking the
same. Because even then, those who only think about themselves can protect
themselves from danger.” Desaray added before shaking her head. “Let’s get
going. The more time we waste here, the more likely we will not meet up with
anyone.”
Everyone nodded,
agreeing with Desaray, even Jake, who reluctantly nodded as well before going
over to Mike, and with Yu’s help, put him on his back. The group then finally
exited the entryway. As soon as they stood on the front stoop of the building,
the group noticed a strange low-lying fog in the air. It was
not something normally seen in the city, so it made things even stranger than
before.
Desaray took a deep
breath before saying: “We will first search the cars for anything we can use as
a weapon. Keep it light so we can move quickly.”
◈◈◈
The sound of glass
shattering could be heard as an alarm went off on the eerily quiet streets of
New York City. “Anything?” Desaray asked as she poked her head through the
now-open door of the Honda that Becky had just broken into.
“I found a gun!”
Becky cried out. She nervously held a gun in her hand that was still in its
holster and passed it to Desaray.
“Not bad. It’s small,
so you should be able to handle it.” Desaray looked it over. Her father had a
gun chest as well in his bedroom, so she knew how to check if it was empty or
not. “Becky, hit this button here, then pull this back to eject any bullets in
the chamber. Just make sure this is always down like this so that the safety is
on when you are doing it, and never point it at anyone while doing this.”
Becky nodded her head
like a good student and listened to Desaray’s instructions. After checking the
chamber and making sure it was unloaded, she was taught how to load a bullet
and then load the gun again. “Now, one thing to make sure of is to always have
your finger off the trigger when walking, only put it on the trigger when you
are aiming at a monster. ”
“Understood. ” Becky
nodded her head again. She felt like she had been doing that since the start.
“Don’t worry, I won’t
hand it to anyone.” Becky knew that Desaray did not trust Jake. There was a
chance if he got a weapon like this, that he might do something stupid in order
to save his own life.
“Desa, I found a
bat!” Yu was next to find a weapon as she hopped out of the cab of a truck.
“Alright, then we
should be good. Jake is busy carrying Mike, so he can’t carry a weapon. It will
be up to the three of us to be the main fighters when it comes down to it.”
Desaray looked at Jake, who had a nasty look on his face. She wondered if he
realized the kind of face he was making at this time.
“Desa, are you sure
we can survive this?” Yu asked in a low voice. She was clutching the bat in her
hand so tightly that the white of her knuckles was showing.
“I can’t answer that.
I do not know what will happen next. I am just as nervous as you are, but I
have no choice. I promised to try to help Mike, and the hospital is the only
way. We may even get lucky, and only the Upper West Side is where the monsters are.
We could cross the terrace to find out that they have a large army of soldiers
standing there.” Desaray answered honestly. This was truly how she felt and
thought at this time. She would not give out false promises since she did not
know what the outcome would be.
The group slowly made
their way across the street, which was now more like a scene out of an
apocalyptic movie than anything else. The cars that were just left abandoned
yet still locked up, the silence of no human traffic whatsoever. In a city this
large, which is normally bustling with pedestrians, it
was very strange to see it like this.
“Why are there no
other people? Did we get hit by truck-kun and not know it?” Becky asked softly,
which almost made Desaray, and Yu burst out laughing. Even Jake, who was in a
bad mood, had his lips twitch upwards at her comment.
“My guess is they are
either hiding or dea…. Don’t look. Let’s go this way.” Desaray stopped in her
tracks and changed directions. They were just joking, but not far from the car
she had led her friends around was a dead body that looked like it had been
torn apart by some kind of monster. Blood was everywhere. And the scent of iron
was heavy in the air making Desaray’s nose wrinkle up.
Becky had caught a
glimpse of it and backed up before quickly running to Desaray’s side, almost
bumping into Yu in the process. Yu did not dare look when Desaray told her not
to and just hurried along. Jake, on the other hand, got a good look as he passed
by. His face grew pale, and the smell of iron was making him feel sick. So sick
that he had to stop. “Urp!”
“I said not to look!
Jake, puke all you want later. For now, let’s move! My nose is much more
sensitive now than it was before, so the smell is affecting me ten times more,
maybe even a hundred times more than it is you.” Desaray couldn’t understand
how it was the girls that could keep it together more than he could. She did
not understand why he was so scared of everything.
Jake looked at
Desaray’s retreating back and quickly adjusted Mike’s position on his back,
then continued forward. He did not hold it against her for being tough on him.
He had to admit she was much stronger than he could ever be at this time with
how calm and collected she was. He also felt embarrassed
that both girls kept their stomachs while he lost his.
Desaray led the group
to a side alley and stopped in front of the entrance. “We will need to go down
this alley as it is quicker and probably safer than taking the main roads. But
there is one thing. I can sense something down here. It doesn’t feel like the
wolf I saw earlier or a goblin, but weaker. If this is the case, I want Becky
and Yu to try to take it out while I hold it back. Becky, use a blunt weapon
and save your bullets for emergencies. There is a pipe at the side, so use
that. When I say to attack, attack.”
Chapter 4
A dark alley with trash
cans and cardboard boxes cluttered up on each side. Water dripping from the air
conditioners above caused pools of water to form on the cracked tar that lined
the alleyway. Tufts of grass sprouted from these cracks showing just how
stubborn nature can be. Grass growing in the middle of the city in a place
where no grass should be. It was enough to make one wonder what would happen if
there were no people here for a long time.
Within this damp
smelly alley, two blue gelatin balls were slowly creeping across it. They were
blue with a round red object in the center of them, something that both Desaray
and Becky knew as the core of this monster. “A slime!”
“Now it feels more
like an RPG!” Becky suddenly got excited as she grasped the metal pipe she had
picked up off the ground. She wondered if she would gain a system like Desaray
if she actually killed this thing.
“Just be careful. We
do not know how dangerous it can be,” Desaray warned. She knew Becky was
excited, but she wanted her to keep on guard as well.
“I know!” Becky
pursed her lips. She knew better than to overestimate herself.
“Okay, I will go in
and see if they attack me. Then you two will each take one and bash away.”
Desaray slowly made her way forward. She did not know how
slimes were in the real world, so she did not know if they would jump up at her
or what, but the closer she got, she noticed that the slimes did not seem to be
reacting to her at all. She walked straight up to them, and they just kept
doing their thing. One was even feeding on a piece of cardboard. She could see
it dissolving the cardboard inside its body.
“Desa?” Becky called
out as she slowly came forward. She saw Desaray just standing there, so she was
kind of confused.
“Becky, come here and
stand at my side.” Desaray wanted to see if these would attack her or not but
wanted to be ready for anything. If one were to attack Becky, she would jump in
to protect her.
Becky did as she was
told and stood next to Desaray, yet the slimes still did not react. “Ummm….”
Becky was confused as to what to do next. She never thought that slimes would
not attack her. She actually felt like they were kind of cute, in a way, but not
the kind of cute that would make her want to take one home.
“Well… hit it hard
enough to break its core. Yu, you do the same to the other one.” Desaray could
tell there were no other monsters close by. Because of this fact, it made a
good chance for these two to get their systems. That is if her idea was right
and that they had to kill a monster to gain a system.
Becky’s eyes glowed
as she raised her metal pipe and then brought it down with everything she had.
The pipe smacked into the slime, causing it to sink in, the core in the middle
cracked and fell apart before dimming. The round gelatin could no longer hold
together and turned into a pool of liquid. Yu also dispatched her slime as
well.
“It’s fine. This is
the evolution process. They just got their systems.” Desaray yelled out as she
stood next to the two domes of fog. She was kind of expecting this, although
she was not one hundred percent sure either. The pain these two were going through
was something she knew all too well. It was a pain she would never forget. She
had no idea what they would become, but she did not care about this either. As
long as they could level up and gain skills, that was all that mattered.
“This… You have to
deal with such pain…?” Jake’s face paled. He hated pain. He hated anything that
would harm him. He was not sure if he wanted to get a system now. He would
prefer to find a safe place to hide until all of what was happening finally
passed. Desaray snorted at the sight of Jake’s pale face. She had dealt with
the pain. She knew Becky could definitely do it, and with how Yu was, she could
do the same.
Twenty minutes
passed, and the fog surrounding the two finally began to dissipate. What was
revealed from the white fog that had surrounded Becky was almost a copy of
Desaray except with white scales that had a golden sheen to them, along with
two pure white horns on top of her head. Next to Becky was a gray-haired
wolf-looking figure that had a mane of flowing green hair. It rippled around as
if the wind was passing through it. Both were standing on their hind legs at
around four feet tall and looked quite cute for being
monsters. Yu looked like a fluffy puppy more than a wolf at this time.
“I really did
change!” Becky cried out as she looked at her claws. She was swaying her tail
back and forth and inspecting each part of her body. She felt quite funny how
her body was so much different, but she also strangely felt it did not feel out
of place. Strange but normal, two words that contradicted each other but
somehow fit together in this situation.
“Desa, stop playing
with my tail!” Yu cried out. Desaray was already busy rubbing her blue-scaled
cheeks all over Yu’s fluffy tail while Becky was engrossed in checking herself
out.
“It’s your fault for
becoming fluffy.” Desaray retorted, not stopping her fluffing.
“Ahh, no fair!” Becky
hurried over and began scratching Yu’s ear. The poor girl had tears in her eyes
but, for some reason, could not resist the pettings!
A few minutes later,
both dragon girls finally let Yu go. With a satisfied snort Desaray turned to
Becky and asked: “Becky, what element are you?”
“Light. I got two
skills called Light Breath level 1 and Dark Immunity level max.” Becky replied
excitedly. She was quite happy that she was going to be able to cast spells and
level up now.
“And Yu? What about
you? What race and element did you get?” Judging by the green mane, Desaray was
thinking Yu’s element was wind, but she wanted to be sure.
“Looks like we have
more to go with now. The only thing…. Becky, can you still handle the gun in
your claws?” Desaray asked. She knew she could, but she wondered if Becky would
be okay now that she was no longer human.
“Mmm… Should be
fine.” Becky replied as she picked up the gun that was on the ground and held
it in her claw with ease. She still had five digits, so it was no different
from before.
“Yu what about the
baseball bat? Or are you going to be using your claws now?” Desaray preferred
using her claws as it seemed more natural to her. This was probably a racial
instinct.
“I will use my claws.
I do not know why, but it seems that it’s more natural…. It’s hard to explain.”
Yu replied while looking down at her claws that had pads on the palms.
“Okay then. Becky
will carry the gun and only use it when needed. I am hoping the loud noise
might scare off any larger monsters, although that is probably doubtful. Let’s
move on!”
◈◈◈
Desaray and her group
slowly made their way to the end of the alley, bringing them to Central Park
West. They had to cross the street here to enter Bethesda Terrace. If they
follow Terrace Dr. all the way to 5th Ave, they would be close to the Lenox
Hill Hospital.
A fenrir, two
dragons, and two humans stood at the edge of the road, looking back and forth
at the long line of abandoned cars. Becky couldn’t help but wrinkle her brow.
“It doesn’t make sense. Besides the one body we have seen
so far, there are no others around. It’s like they all disappeared without a
trace.”
“Becky, I think you
might be correct in this assumption. After all, with the number of people in
New York City, just the Upper West Side would have a good number of people. Yet
there was barely anyone running earlier when the first goblin showed up. As we
still do not know what happened or what is causing any of this, we must keep
going and hope that Mike can get proper treatment.” Desaray sighed and looked
at Mike and then at Jake, who was sweating. “Jake, I want to get you a system
as well if you want but first, we need you to bring Mike into the hospital. The
three of us can not go close to the hospital if it is being guarded.”
Jake nodded his head.
He could understand this fact. “Then please keep me alive until then.”
“Don’t worry. As long as
we are not in serious trouble, I will stop at nothing to protect you at this
time. I think this goes for Becky and Yu as well, right?” Desaray looked at the
two girls, who nodded their heads. “So, while it is not a complete promise, we
will do what we can.”
“Alright.” Jake
clenched his fists. He understood that Desaray was not backing down from her
earlier statement. But at least he knew they would not just leave him if things
were not too bad yet.
The group carefully
crossed the street and stepped into Bethesda Terrace, a part of Central Park
known for its prominent displays of art and architecture. What was normally a
busy part of the park was now nothing but a ghost town with no foot traffic at all.
“Desa, shouldn’t we
just walk straight across instead of taking Terrace Dr.?” Yu asked. She did not
see a reason to be taking the main road through if they could just cut through
the park.
“Now that you mention
it. I smell something… stinky but am unsure what it is exactly.” Yu replied. As
part of a wolf-type race, her senses were quite sharp already, but as a fenrir,
they were even sharper than a dragon’s.
“I can smell
something, but I can’t figure out where it is,” Becky replied. She had her
snout in the air and was smelling around.
“I am the same. Yu,
it will be up to you to help determine if something is closer than it should be
and a threat. Without your warning, we might end up in a dangerous position.”
Desaray did not want anything bad to happen to those here. While she might throw
Jake under the bus, the rest were good people.
“On it!” Yu nodded as
she extended her claws. Desaray was surprised that Yu was doing things so
naturally, then again, it was the same for her. It just came naturally.
Natural instincts
seemed to have been ingrained within them after they evolved, which helped them
cope with the sudden change of stature and race. If it was not for this, all
three of them would not be as they are now and would still be trying to deal
with the sudden change.
They walked for about
ten minutes before Yu smelt something getting closer. “Desa….”
“Desa, you sound like a
raid leader.” Becky teased as she took her position.
“As of now, we have
to take every fight as if we are fighting a raid boss. This is just how it is.
So pay attention. This is not some VR game; this is real life.” Desaray did not
want to leave room for error. She wanted to keep everyone from getting harmed.
She just hoped it would not come down to abandoning someone. That would not sit
well with her.
“I know!”
◈◈◈
A rotting smell
started to fill the air. It was so strong now that even Jake could smell it,
causing him to wrinkle his nose. “What is this sme….”
“Shh!” Desaray turned
and glared at Jake, who quickly closed his mouth. He knew he just messed up. In
a situation where the people who will do the fighting are being quiet, he, as
the on-looker and the one being protected, should not make a sound.
“Desa,” Yu whispered
before motioning with her claws and holding up one claw. Desaray nodded and got
ready to fight. Becky also lowered her head slightly,
ready to pounce on whatever it was that was about to arrive.
A shadow slowly
formed in the thick fog. It was tall and humanoid-shaped, but the way it was
walking was very strange. It seemed to have a slight shuffle in its step as if
one of its legs were being dragged behind.
“Desa, I think this
is….” Becky was about to confirm what was approaching them when the figure
finally came fully into view.
A young woman, well,
if you could call her a woman. Her blue business suit was ripped in many places
exposing more than what should be exposed. Some might take pictures of such a
scene, that was, if she did not have a huge hole in her chest with rotting flesh
hanging off her body. Her dirty blonde hair was all over the place and even had
dirt and sticks sticking out of it. On her feet was a single blue high heel
shoe while her other foot was twisted and mangled.
It was disgusting
enough to make one feel sick to their stomach, but Desaray felt something was
off. “Don’t attack unless attacked!”
Becky and Yu quickly
backed up but kept their gazes on the zombie. This was all they could call it
since it was a picture-perfect example of what a zombie would look like.
Desaray walked forward and stood in front of the group. She looked at the
female zombie with narrowed eyes. “Stop where you are!”
Desaray’s voice
filled the air. The female zombie actually came to a stop. Her mouth opened as
if she was going to say something, but only a mournful groan came out of her
mouth. The female zombie raised its hand to its throat and shook its head. But
the message was clear. Desaray understood that this zombie was sentient
and was probably a human who turned into a zombie, like how she turned into a
dragon. It was just that it could not talk normally. She took a deep breath
before saying, “I guess you used to be human like me. Since you can not talk,
can you still remember how to write?”
This time the female
zombie nodded its head and, with great difficulty, bent over and began
scratching the ground with the tip of its finger, which had no skin on it. ‘My
name is Claire. A green thing attacked me here in this park while on my way to
work, and I somehow killed it. Before I knew what was happening, a window
appeared before me. Then I felt a great pain, and before I knew it, I was like
this. What is going on? Why am I like this!? I want to die. But I can’t. I even
stabbed at my own heart, but it did nothing. I jumped from a large staging area
in the park and bashed my head, causing it to fall off, but it somehow
reattached itself. I do not want to be like this. Please kill me….’
The female zombie’s
head sagged as she knelt on the ground holding her head. Desaray could tell if
the female zombie could cry, she would be drowning in tears at this time. She
felt pity for the female zombie. She knew it must be hard looking like this. Becoming
something you would only see in the movies.
“I understand….”
Desaray took a deep breath before letting it out. This was not an easy decision
for her. She did not like the idea of killing another human unless they were
trying to harm her or her loved ones, but this was something that one could not
cure. But… “Before I do what you asked. Let me ask you. If you say status, can
you see a window appear?”
The female zombie
lifted her head. She let out a mournful groan, and a blue window appeared
before her. She stared at it in a daze before looking up at Desaray with
questioning eyes.
The female zombie
quickly scribbled on the ground. “I need to reach level 20 and eat the brains
of three elite monsters….” A strange look appeared on the female zombie’s face.
It was one of disgust. Of course, this was understandable since not many would
rightfully want to eat the brains of another animal unless they had no choice.
Desaray realized that
it seemed that reaching level 20 was the bare minimum for the second evolution.
The same went for Yu and Becky as well. They, too, needed to reach level 20
before they could evolve. “I am only assuming this, but I believe with each evolution,
there is a chance to have your body change in one shape or another. I can not
be certain, but it is a high possibility. If we can change into these forms,
there is nothing saying we can not regain a decent humanoid form after evolving
a few times. If you are willing to do it, you can try leveling up first to
reach your evolution requirements and see if that helps. If you still do not
change for the better, then I will do as you ask. How about that?”
◈◈◈
The female zombie,
Claire, stared at the ground with her finger in the dirt for almost a full
minute before finally nodding her head. ‘If there is a chance, then I will try.
How do I level up?’
“From what I can
understand at this time, killing other monsters. Although I do hope you do not
attack me or my friends. But goblins, the green little
man you killed to end up like this, might give you some decent experience. Or
maybe the blue balls of gelatin, slimes which we found in a back alley. Those
do not attack at all, but I am not sure how much experience you will get from
any of these things, especially the slimes. But one can only push forward and
grind like no tomorrow. I plan to do just that once I reach the hospital.”
Desaray explained.
Claire lowered her
head and began scribbling on the ground once again. ‘Thank you. I had planned
to die, but if there is now a chance, I will do what I can and kill those
disgusting green monsters with everything I have. Also…. I am not sure how the
hospital is. As far as I know, humans have been disappearing left and right. Be
careful. Your form will not be liked by those who have not changed like us….’
Desaray smiled and
nodded her head. “I will. Take care of yourself.”
After saying their
goodbyes, the group left Claire behind. Claire stood up, looked in the
direction Desaray and the rest left, and clenched her fists. She was now
determined to live. As long as she can reach level 20 and eat the three brains,
she might have a chance to make things better. Better than her current
situation, that is. She looked down at the words written on the ground and used
her mangled foot to wipe the dirt away. Only after she had done all that did
she turn and vanish back into the fog.
Desaray once more
pushed forward. She had her cell phone in her hand as she tried to call her
father once more. She still could not get through. It was not just her who was
worried about their parents either, but everyone was worried. Claire’s words at
the end about people disappearing were only now setting in.
“At least we got a
bit more information. I had found it odd that there were not a lot of people
around and thought that maybe they had just up and disappeared, but now I guess
I was in the right line of thinking.” Desaray sighed. “I just hope a doctor or
two are left at the hospital.”
“What do you plan to
do if it is infested with monsters or if there are no doctors?” Jake asked out
of curiosity. He had not heard all of Desaray’s plans as of yet.
“Mmm… Find a slime
and make it so that Mike kills it. Maybe undergoing evolution will wake him
up.” Desaray was not sure if it would work, but it was worth a try at the very
least.
“Would he be able to
handle the pain?” Jake knew the evolution process was painful, so he was unsure
if Mike would be able to take it in his current state.
“I am not sure…. This
is why if something happens, I will be the one to do it. Since I came up with
the idea, I would not leave the aftermath to you all.” Desaray was really not
sure what would happen. If Mike ended up dying due to her idea, it would end up
being not only her fault but also the person who helped Mike kill the slime.
This was why she would do it herself instead of forcing someone else to do the
deed since it risked killing an innocent life.
“Desa, you are
strong, but you do not need to shoulder the burden all by yourself. If it comes
down to that, I will be the one to do it. I owe Mike my life. I will do
anything to help him.” Yu suddenly spoke up. If not for Mike, she would have
been crushed by the car. He had saved her without care
for his own life. Now he was in this situation where he was unconscious.
Desaray looked at Yu
and could see that she was being serious. She had to admit it was not just her
who was strong, Yu was also strong. Everyone here was. “We will do it
together.”
The group continued
forward with only the fog blocking their path. Luckily the landmarks around
them were something that they all knew, so it was easy to tell where they were.
They quickly passed through the park and reached 5th Avenue. “I don’t see any army….”
“I only mentioned it
as a what if….” Desaray pursed her scaly lips and glared at Becky, who stuck
her tongue out at her. “I wonder why you became a dragon….”
“What is wrong with
me becoming a dragon!?” Becky snorted and gave Desaray a nudge.
“Because you never
liked dragons as much as me! Didn’t you like elves or something like that
before? Why did you become a dragon, of all things? Should have become an elf
so some orc could whisk you away.” Desaray snorted back. The two girls glared
at each other before looking away, crossing their arms, and humphing. Then not
even two seconds later, they both burst out laughing.
“What is that!? Why
would you damn me to some orcs!? You are such a bitch sometimes. Hahaha!” Becky
hugged Desaray, who smiled although scarily.
Desaray stuck her
tongue out at Becky as she pushed away from her and said: “I was just joking.
Anyway, it looks like we will not be shot today, so let’s try heading to the
Lenox Hill hospital.”
More streets devoid
of human life filled their vision. Desaray was hoping that no matter what
happened in the near future, her father would still be alive. She felt that no
matter what form he took on, she would recognize him right away. He was the man
that raised her and was also the only family she had left in this world. There
could be no way she would not recognize him. “When this is all over, I am
finding my father a wife…. That Claire girl seemed nice….”
“Desa, did you say
something?” Becky could have sworn that Desaray had said something just now.
But when she saw Desaray shake her head, she began to think that maybe she was
just hearing things.
“Wait.” Desaray
stopped and lowered her body slightly. “Something is coming.”
This time Desaray did
not notice any smell of any kind but felt a strong vibration underfoot. It was
subtle at first, so it did not really make her think too much about it. But
those vibrations quickly grew strong and stronger. “Yu, protect Jake and Mike.
Becky, to the left, I will take the right.”
“Got it!” “Okay!”
Becky and Yu answered at the same time. They quickly got into the formation
that had been decided on while walking.
The vibration on the
ground got stronger and stronger until, finally, even the street lights were
shaking. The doors and windows on the buildings also shook. It was as if an
earthquake was hitting the city.
“Desa, I do not think
we can fight those!” Becky was the first to see that the situation might be
bad. There were four monsters and three of them, who were all level 1, plus
Jake who had yet to gain a system and his first evolution, and then Mike, who
was unconscious. They had no way to fight these monsters, of which they had no
idea what their levels were, and hope to survive without injury.
“Everyone into the
building! Becky, you break the door down!” Desaray made an immediate judgment.
Until she leveled up and got the appraisal skill, she had no plans to fight
unknown monsters, especially ones that looked like they could swallow her
whole.
“On it!” Becky did
not hesitate in the slightest as she ran towards the building next to them, up
the front stoop, and slammed her body into the door, breaking it off its
hinges. “Open!”
“Jake, hurry up!” Yu
yelled out. She was standing in front of Jake, but Jake was not moving at all.
It was as if he was frozen in fear.
Desaray turned to see
Jake just standing there and was starting to get aggravated. He was picking now
of all times to freeze in fear. “Jake, if you do not want to die, then move
your ass! Otherwise, I will take Mike and Yu, and I will run to safety instead
of trying to protect you!”
It seemed the word
die sunk in, and Jake finally snapped out of his frozen state. His face was
pale as he adjusted his grip on Mike and quickly ran up the steps. Yu and
Desaray were not far behind him, backing up with each step he took until they
had all entered the building.
But just because they
entered the building did not mean they were going to be safe. One of the gray
monsters roared as it watched the prey it had just been charging at try to hide
from it. Its roar shattered nearby windows all around it. In its anger, it
bashed a car that was in its path and sent it flying into a storefront not far
away. It stared at the building its prey ran into for a few seconds before
roaring once more and charging toward it.
“Not good!” Desaray
yelled out as she saw the gray monster charging right at them. “Quickly make
your way to the stairwell!”
Desaray was still
pushing Jake forward but she had already opened her mouth and was charging her
ice breath. She did not want anyone she knew to die. Not when they had made it
this far. She dodged a few bricks before finally shouting: “Ice Breath!”
Chapter 5
A stream of ice shot out
in a cone in front of her and smashed into the huge monster that had just
broken through the wall to enter the building. Ice began to form on its huge
body as it stumbled backward. Desaray didn’t even think to look at the monster
any longer as she stopped the channeling of her ice breath, turned, and yelled
at her friends. “Let’s go!”
Desaray picked Jake
up by his legs, taking Mike with them as she ran towards the stairwell door.
She turned to see Becky hot on her tail and the monster with a partially frozen
body not far behind but now much slower. She kicked the door of the stairwell
open and dropped Jake to his feet. “Go up and do not stop! If you drop Mike, I
will kill you myself, so you better not leave him behind.”
Jake’s face paled as
he began running up the stairs. With Mike’s weight piled on top of him, he was
already sweating after a few steps and having a hard time breathing. Luckily Yu
and Becky quickly went to his side and took Mike from him. “Just go! We will
handle Mike. But do not stop for anything!”
Becky gave Jake a
dirty look as she and Yu began running up the stairs. While Mike’s legs were
dragging behind them, it was at least faster than Jake carrying him. Jake had
already been left in the dust as he struggled to climb the steps. He was scared
and out of breath. He felt like he was going to die just from breathing.
Desaray’s split
decision to take the stairs was the right call, even if she did not mean it to
be. She was only thinking of trying to escape the monsters in the quickest way
possible, and since the stairs were the closest thing to her, she made a sudden
judgment which turned out to be the best decision.
“How far are we
going?” Becky asked as they continued to rush forward. They were now five
floors up and almost to the sixth floor.
“We will exit to the
next floor,” Desaray replied. She felt it didn’t matter which floor they got
off at as long as they were able to escape the monsters.
They pushed open the
sixth-floor door and stepped into the hallway. The building they were in seemed
to be an apartment building. Desaray looked around and frowned slightly. She
didn’t realize the kind of building they entered until now, and hiding in a hallway
was not an option. “Yu, take Becky and listen in on the doors. If you hear
nothing inside, break the door open so that we can still close it. I will
protect Mike and Jake.”
While they were doing
a check, Desaray turned and looked at Jake, who was as pale as a ghost and
having a hard time breathing. She clicked her tongue before walking over to him
and patting him on the back. “Jake, use your shirt to cover your nose and mouth
and take deep breaths.”
She did not have any
kind of bags inside her backpack that she had still strapped to her back, so
she was unable to give him anything of that nature. She could give him her bag
itself, but she refused to do that as it had her treasures inside. No one was
allowed to even look at her treasures! She had not even realized her dragon
instincts were starting to surface.
A loud roar came from
below and echoed through the stairwell, making it seem more horrifying than
before. The building was even shaking a little as the monster downstairs was
struggling to get up the stairs after pushing its body in.
“Desa, it’s open!”
Becky announced as she came over.
Desaray was lost in
thought because she was trying to decide whether or not she should check on the
monster’s situation. If its big body got stuck in the stairwell, then she would
have a chance….
“Becky, you and Yu
take Jake and Mike in. Find a bag of some kind for Jake to breathe into and
tell him to keep taking deep breaths, or he might die from hyperventilating. I
will go check on the situation with the monster.” Desaray took a deep breath.
She hoped she was not sending herself to her doom, but if this monster was
truly stuck, then things would work out in her favor. If
she could reach level 2, then she just might be able to get appraisal and first
aid. The first aid skill might come in handy in healing Mike. It says it heals
minor wounds, although, she did not know if Mike’s current situation could be
considered minor or not.
“Desa….” Becky was
reluctant to let her friend go. She was afraid something bad might happen to
her.
“I will be fine. I
can use my ice breath to slow them like before, so I am the best person… err…
dragon to do the job.” Desaray was not lying when she said this. But she also
knew that if she was by herself and the monster decided to chase her, she could
lead it away from her friends, allowing them some much-needed rest.
Becky sighed and
hugged Desaray. “Be careful. If you are not back in ten minutes, I will come
looking for you.”
◈◈◈
Desaray promised
Becky she would do her best to be back within ten minutes then entered the
stairwell. She could hear the roaring and thrashing about coming from below.
“Is it still on the first floor?” Desaray was unsure, but she did wonder if
this was the case.
Not wanting to charge
right in, she slowly made her way down the stairs keeping her body low. She
wished this was one of those stairwells that she could peek out over, but it
was probably because it wasn’t that was keeping the monster busy. At each turn,
she would peek around the corner, and only when it was clear did she begin
moving down the stairs again.
The roars and
struggling got louder and louder. By the time she reached the third floor, she
had to stop moving forward as she could smell the stench
from the monster’s body as if it was right on top of her.
Desaray did not want
to be caught off guard, so she backed up a few steps to the previous landing,
where she took off her backpack. She then took out her phone and switched the
camera into selfie mode. Once she was set, she went back down the steps and to
the bottom landing on the third floor. She took a deep breath and edged her
phone out over the stairs leading down to see what she could see.
In her camera view
was a gray hairy arm flailing about. It seemed like the monster had gotten
stuck. Her scaly lips curled up as she realized she was one lucky dragon. She
quickly ran back up the stairs to her backpack and put her phone away. She
could not let her treasure get damaged in a fight so after a moment’s thought,
she picked up her backpack and went up a few floors, and stashed it in a
corner. Only then was she willing to leave it behind. As she went back
downstairs, she stopped off on the third floor to grab a fire extinguisher.
This fire
extinguisher was going to play a key role in her fight as it was going to be
used as a means to instantly blind the monster while she began her attack. She
had no idea how strong she was, but she hoped she was strong enough to deal
some damage to this monster. Because of the close quarters and her lack of
training with her ice breath, she did not think it would be good at this time
to use it. She had to wait until she understood her own abilities better before
using it at any time. Although it did come in handy in emergency situations. It
was just the charge time that was keeping her from using it.
After working out her
plan in her mind, Desaray took a deep breath and finally stepped out around the
corner. She pulled the pin and readied the fire extinguisher as she made her
way down the stairs to where the arm was gripping the
wall. It was a huge arm that took up quite a bit of the space between the two
walls, which made Desaray feel even luckier. If the monster was not as big as
it was, she would never be able to get this close without fearing for her life.
After taking a second
deep breath, she let it out slowly and decided it was time. She only needed to
be careful of its claws; the rest would be easy. She dashed forward, jumping
over the flailing claw, and using the wall as a springboard. She aimed the fire
extinguisher nozzle at the large eyes that were now staring right at her and
squeezed the trigger.
“Roar!” The large
monster was angered by the sudden stinging sensation in its eyes. It began
flailing about even more violently, but every time it opened its mouth, it
sucked in a mouthful of a strange substance it had never encountered before. It
began to choke on the air it was taking in, and at the same time, it suddenly
felt a heavy impact on its head.
Desaray smashed the
fire extinguisher onto the monster’s head, sending the monster’s head into the
stairs with a loud thud, even cracking the cement it was made out of. This
caused a pained roar to escape the monster’s lips. Desaray did not stop there,
though. She jumped up and swiftly spun her body around, landed back on top of
the monster’s head, and jabbed her claws into the monster’s eyes, making sure
to permanently blind it.
The monster’s head
raised up as it howled in pain, almost knocking her backward and down the
stairs. Desaray did not wait for it to try to reach up and attack her but
instead jumped off its head and landed in front of it as she watched it flail
about and grab at the top of its head, thinking that she was still there. She
waited for the right moment and rushed in once more right as the monster reared
all the way up, exposing its chest. Using all her
strength, she stabbed out with her claw, penetrating the monster’s chest and
breaking through its bones. She felt an oddly shaped object in her claws,
clenched down on it, and pulled with all her might.
Blood sprayed all
over her as her claw exited the monster’s body, drenching her from head to toe.
In her hand was a blue pulsating object that she immediately crushed. The gray
monster stopped flailing back as its body went limp and fell to the floor with
a loud thud.
[You Defeated A Gray
Back]
[Experience Points
Gained….]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
Desaray stumbled back
a few steps and looked at the massive body that was now limp in front of her
and then at the system messages and let out a laugh. “Hah! Hahahaha! I did it!
Hahaha! I even got 2 levels!”
She was happy. But
she knew one thing. If this monster was not stuck like it was, she would not
have been able to kill it so easily. No, it is more like she would have become
a snack for this monster.
Desaray did not dare
stick around as she quickly returned to where she left her backpack. But when
she arrived, before she picked it up, she looked down at herself and frowned.
She knew Becky and the others would freak out if they saw her like this. “I should
probably wash up, but If I do not hurry back, Becky wil…”
“I am fine. The
monster was stuck in the stairwell, and I used a few tricks to my advantage.”
Desaray explained. She looked down at herself and sighed. “Is the water in the
apartment working?”
“Yeah, let’s get you
cleaned up.” Becky nodded and went to pick up Desaray’s bag for her, only for
her claws to get slapped away before they could even touch it. She looked up at
Desaray with a confused expression. “Desa?”
“My treasure…”
Desaray used one of her claws to pick up the bag, trying to be careful not to
get blood on it, before walking up the stairs, leaving a very confused Becky
behind.
Although it did not
take much time for her to figure things out. “Treasure? Wait!? Dragon.
Treasure… Hahaha!”
◈◈◈
Inside the apartment
that Becky and Yu broke into, Desaray was currently lying in a hot bath. The
building still had power which she found strange but at the same time was happy
about since it meant she could now have a hot bath. She laid back in the tub
and looked at the blue screen in front of her. “Oh? My health and mana jumped
quite a bit in two levels.”
{World Order System}
[Name]: Desaray Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 3
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 150/150
[MP]: 70/70
[Skill Points]: 10
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)}
“I have ten skill
points which is very good. I guess this means I get five points per level, like
any RPG I have played. Since that is the case!” Desaray opened her skill menu
and began searching for the skills she wanted to get. First on her list was
Appraisal. Costing only 1 skill point, which she was happy to spend. She also
took First Aid and Toughened Skin, which all cost only 1 skill point. This left
her with 7 skill points. Next was everyday magic that cost 2 skill points,
which she was sure would come in handy later on.
[Skill Points]: 5
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)} {Toughened Skin
(Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)}
“Oh?” Desaray had
decided to check her skill menu to see how things would work, and to her
surprise, each spell from everyday magic showed up in the skill area and were
all at level 1. “That is neat, I wonder what these five spells can do when they
hit max…. Anyway, let’s test appraisal first.”
Desaray held a bar of
soap in front of her and whispered the activation word. “Appraisal…”
[A used bar of soap.]
[Used for cleaning one’s
body.]
[Smells like a spring
breeze.]
[Sell: 1 silver]
“Hmmm? You can sell
it? 1 silver?” Desaray did not really understand, but at least now she knew she
could identify things. She hoped it worked on monsters as well. Desaray looked
at first aid next and wondered if her appraisal would work on the menu. “Appraisal…”
[First Aid]
[Heals minor damage.]
[Can heal flesh wounds,
broken bones, and minor concussions.]
[Can not heal illness.]
[Cost 60 Mana]
One part stuck out to
Desaray within the description. “Minor concussions, huh? I will need to try it
on Mike.”
Knowing there was no
time like the present, Desaray got out of the bath and used dry magic to dry
her body. To make sure she was perfectly clean, she used cleanse as well. She
felt extremely clean after using the cleanse magic. Although she still liked hot
baths, she knew this would come in handy for those times when she could not
bathe. She still had 5 skill points which she did plan to use since she saw
that she could get a basic element magic attack for the price of 5 status
points. But before she decided on which element, she wanted to try to heal Mike
first.
“Probably because I
used cleanse magic on my body. Here I will use it on you too.” Desaray spoke
the activation word, and not even a second later, Becky felt a wind swirl
around her. As if all the dirt on her body had been sent into the void, her
white scales that had been slightly dirty were now perfectly clean and
sparkling under the light of the room.
“Amazing!” Becky’s
scaly lips curled up. She felt that maybe this system thing was not so bad
after all. “What spell is this?”
“Ah. It’s a spell I
got from getting everyday magic which cost me 2 skill points. After leveling up
two times after killing the gray monster, I got ten skill points, so five per
level.” Desaray had a smug expression on her face. She was winning in the
level-up department!
“Lucky! I want to
level up too! I should have followed you secretly!” Becky pouted. But she was
happy to know a few things about the level-ups. She listened to Desaray as she
explained how much health and mana she got as well.
“I will help you
level up soon. But before anything, I need to see if my first aid skill will
heal Mike.” Desaray went to the bedroom where Mike was lying on the bed,
covered up to his chest in a blue comforter. Sitting next to him, watching over
him, was Yu. She had a worried expression on her wolf-like face.
“How is he?” Desaray
asked as she walked over to the side of the bed.
“I just got some new
skills, so let me try to heal him. But no promises.” Not waiting for Yu to
answer, Desaray hopped up onto the bed and stood over Mike. She reached out
with one of her claws and placed it on Mike’s head. “First aid…..”
A dim green glow
flowed out of her hand and enveloped Mike. The dim green glow lasted for almost
three minutes before finally disappearing. Desaray removed her hand and jumped
off the bed. She had no idea if her skill was effective or not, but she did know
it took a good deal of mana to use the skill. Almost half of her current
amount.
While this skill
could not be used in battle, she had no time to care about that as she stared
at the young male teen on the bed. Her eyes locked on to his. There had been no
movement all this time but now…. “I think it is working!”
◈◈◈
Mike’s eyes began to
flutter. He had no idea what had happened to him after he passed out. He only
remembered pulling Yu to safety before blacking out. He slowly opened his eyes,
making sure to let his eyes adjust to the bright light. “Whe-Where am I…..”
Mike’s eyes landed on the dog that was sitting in a chair next to him, and felt
slightly confused. Mainly because the dog was sitting
like a human, and second the eyes were staring at him excitedly. “Dog? Wait.
Did I get isekai’d?”
“No, silly!” Yu’s
lips curled up into a smile, seeing that Mike was now okay.
Mike stared at the
dog who had just spoken to him and felt shocked, yet at the same time, the
voice was very familiar. He tilted his head to the side and asked: “Yu?”
“The one and only! I
am surprised that you could recognize me.” Yu replied and hopped down from the
chair and onto the bed. She moved over and placed her paw on Mike’s cheek.
“Thank you, for saving me.”
“Should I leave?”
Desaray was starting to feel like the third wheel here. She had been standing
on the bed this entire time but was being fully ignored right now.
“Haha! No! Desa,
thank you.” Yu replied as she turned and looked at the blue-scaled dragon girl.
“Your spell worked, and now Mike is okay again.”
“He might be awake,
but he will need to stay in bed for a while. He hit his head hard, so even if
the first aid woke him up, he needs to rest and make sure there are no lasting
side effects. Luckily this apartment is filled with food. So I will leave Mike
in your hands. I still need to see if I can find my father. I might not be able
to return until tomorrow. I will have Becky stay here to help protect you guys.
So you and Becky will be in charge of defense…” Desaray paused her words and
fell into thought for a moment. She felt that it would not be good if both of
them went to sleep at night.
“Yu, you will take
the first night watch, and Becky will take the second. So wake her up around
midnight. I will destroy part of the wall downstairs and
pile up some rubble in front of the door to try to keep any monsters out. While
we have not seen any yet, do be careful of the windows for any monsters that
might have climbed up or are able to fly. I would suggest keeping lights to a
minimum at night.” Desaray did not know what to expect, so she wanted to try to
think of any scenario that they might run into. “Also, no matter what you hear
at night, do not open that door for anyone.”
“Understood. Make
sure you give Becky the rundown as well.” Yu had long recognized Desaray as
their leader. Because of her, they were able to get this far.
“I will. Oh, if Jake
does anything to piss you off, just knock him out with a chop to the back of
the neck. I can heal him after.” Desaray left these words as she chuckled and
walked out of the room, politely closing it to give the two inside some alone time.
After the door
closed, Mike stared at the door in confusion. His eyes drifted to Yu, who
smiled and said: “That was Desaray, and because of her, you were able to wake
up. She was determined to bring you to the hospital and even fought monsters
that could have killed her all by herself. We ended up running into some huge
monsters before we could reach the hospital and took up refuge here. Luckily
she was able to kill one of the monsters and leveled up, gaining a skill called
first aid, which healed you.”
“I see… I will need
to thank her.” Mike relaxed as he leaned back. “I need to get used to this.
Everything seems like a dream. Can you tell me everything that has happened so
far?”
While Yu filled Mike
in on the details of everything that had happened thus far, outside the room,
Desaray spoke with Becky, who had just finished making some food. “So you will
be leaving for a while….”
“Mmm… I will. Desa,
be careful out there. And…. Good luck finding your dad. And if you can, please
see if my parents are home as well… If you have time, that is.” Becky began to
tear up. She wondered if her parents were okay as well…
“Don’t worry, if I
see your parents, I will bring them to you. I promise to protect them.” Desaray
was not going to leave her friend here worried about her own family. She would
be sure to try to find something out, if anything, about her mother and father
as well.
“Thank you, Desa!”
Becky hugged Desaray before stepping back and turning towards the food on the
coffee table. “Eat a few bites before you go.”
Desaray smiled and
did as she was told. Becky only cooked some simple instant noodles, but it was
still better than nothing. After a few bites she said her goodbyes and headed
out of the room. Her first task was to break up a wall to get as much rubble as
she could. She did not go down the same stairwell she came up on, but instead
made her way down the other stairwell down the hall and went to the floor
below. She already knew she was much stronger than her human form by many
times. Her scales were also quite powerful. With these new features combined,
she felt it should be quite easy for her to bust down a wall and make enough
debris to block the door to the apartment that Becky and the others were in.
When she reached the
fifth floor, Desaray found an empty apartment and began punching away at the
walls. The concrete that made up the outside wall of the apartment rapidly
began to break up into huge chunks as she punched and pulled at the wall,
purposefully breaking it apart into chunks as big as she could get.
After gathering
enough rubble, Desaray used a large blanket from the same apartment to wrap the
rubble up for easier transport. While it would take a few trips, she still felt
it was worth it. After almost an hour, the door to the apartment Becky and the
others were in was covered in broken cement. While this might not guard against
intelligent monsters, it would, or at least should, make other monsters not
even want to deal with the rubble.
With that now all
set, Desaray headed back downstairs. When she reached the first floor, she
adjusted her backpack and listened for any signs of monsters. Only when she
felt the coast was clear did she crack the door open and look around. She
slowly stepped out into the main hall and made her way towards the exit. But
she only got halfway to the door when she stopped and saw something quite
interesting. “A second one got stuck!?”
Desaray was shocked
to see another large body flailing about in the entrance to the other
stairwell. She never stopped to even look to see if another one had gotten
stuck or not when she had killed the first one. She took a deep breath and
quickly but quietly made her way to the second monster and used appraisal on
it.
[Gray Back Rancor]
[Monster Rank]: E
[HP]: 470/470
[MP]: 10/10
“So that is called a
gray back rancor? So rancor for short. Wait… Is it different from the last
one?” She was slightly confused until something else caught her eye. “Level
ten? I guess it’s prone to instant kill when the heart is dug out. But then I
guess any living being would be the same unless they did not have a heart.”
Desaray pondered for a moment before closing her eyes and pumping herself up.
“I need to do this before it realizes there is a threat.”
Not wanting to give
herself away or lose this chance. Desaray charged forward and jumped up into
the air. She remembered roughly where she had attacked before to dig out the
other rancor’s heart. With her claws fully extended, she slammed her right claw
down and pierced through the rancor’s back. The rancor roared out in pain but
was unable to do anything with how it was stuck. Desaray once more found her
target, gripped the rancor’s heart, and pulled with all her might. A sickening,
tearing sound was heard as the heart was pulled from its body. This time
though, Desaray was aware of the blood spray and quickly jumped back, getting
out of the way.
She tossed the
crushed heart to the side and looked at the notification in front of her.
[You Defeated A Gray
Back Rancor]
[Experience Points
Gained….]
[Level Up!]
[Name]: Desaray
Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 4
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 200/200
[MP]: 95/95
[Skill Points]: 0
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)} {Toughened Skin
(Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)}
It seemed her health
liked to jump fifty points per level. And her mana was a little all over the
place on how it rose. But it was still about half of her health which was good.
The biggest thing was her two new skills. One was Ice Arrow. She chose this because
she was an ice dragon, and it was faster to cast than her ice breath. The
second spell was fireball. She got this to have the opposite element that her
main element. An ice dragon who had fire spells, she was quite proud of herself
for her trickery.
Luckily there was no
incantation or anything like that. Everything was voice activation. But mana
cost was something she now had to think about since ice
arrow and fireball both used 10 MP. She could get five casts of one spell and
four of another or nine casts altogether of the same spell. She did not know if
she could fire more than one at a time or not. This was something she would
need to play around with to find out.
For now, her main
goal was two things. First, she needed to check her own house to see if her
father had returned. If he had, good, she would need to figure out how to get
him to notice it was her. The second thing came after that. If he was not home,
she would need to head to Lower Manhattan. This was not going to be a quick
trip. “I should have said I might need to take another day…”
She knew just getting
to her house would take a few hours if she was not lucky and ended up needing
to fight or run away from monsters. Then it would take her almost a half day,
if not more, to get to the fire station that her father works out of if he was
even there. “Well…. I am sure they will wait for me. Or at least Becky will.”
Taking a deep breath, Desaray walked out of the building.
Chapter 6
The fog had long lifted
and Desaray had already made her way to the entrance of the terrace once more.
“I don’t sense anything around here….”
Pursing her scaly
lips, Desaray continued forward, walking towards her home. The only thing going
on in her mind at this time was the worry about her fathers well being. She
hoped he had not disappeared like how so many seemed to have. She did not know
what she would do if her father really did disappear or got killed by some
monster.
She made her way back
the same way she came through the park. No monsters were in sight at this time,
which made her feel a little relieved since she was quickly making progress.
With each step she took, the closer she came to returning to her home. Her steps
were quick. She was basically in a small sprint which she found quite amazing
since she was going pretty fast but did not feel tired at all.
About half an hour
later, she had finally reached her street. She had not run into anyone or
anything, which made her wonder where all those monsters had gone. When she
reached her building, she took a deep breath and took out her key, then
unlocked the front door before heading toward the elevator, which was still
operational. She had no idea how long the power would last, but she did hope
that it would last a while. When the elevator dinged and
opened up once more, she stepped out and looked down the familiar hallway.
She slowly made her
way down the hall while trying to figure out how to explain her current
appearance and situation to her father. When she reached her apartment, she
reached for her key but hesitated for a moment. “He won’t attack me, right?”
This worry filled her
mind as she gritted her teeth and inserted the key into the lock, and with a
swift turn of the key, she pushed the door open. She was nervous and excited at
the same time, but when she saw that the lights were all still off and it was
dead silent, her hopes were crushed.
That was until she
noticed the mess the front entrance was in. “Did he come home?”
She saw her father’s
work boots thrown about on the floor as if he was in a rush when he came in. He
only had one set of work boots, so she knew it was definitely him. She walked
in slowly into the house, closing the door behind her with a bit of hope once
more. “Dad?”
Desaray called out
softly, but she still only got silence. She made her way into the living room
and looked at the coffee table. On it was a sheet of paper that was not there
in the morning. She walked over to it and looked at it to see that it was indeed
a note. On it was her father’s handwriting, something she would never mistake.
“Dad….” Tears welled up in Desaray’s eyes as she held the note and began
reading it.
‘Desa, I have no idea
if you will ever read this, but the world has gone to hell. I have no idea when
it started, but people suddenly started disappearing by the masses. As soon as
I got to the station, I watched as two of my co-workers turned into balls of golden yellow light and rose into the sky. It passed right
through the ceiling as if it was not even there.
‘I immediately turned
around and ran all the way to your school to find out that there was barely
anyone there. I kept seeing all kinds of weird things on the way there as well.
Home was the last place I could look for you. But since I am writing this, that
means you were not home either….
‘Desa, if you are
still alive, stay safe. The world is changing. I do not know what those beings
are, but there are a lot of different ones roaming around now. They are killing
people or taking them hostage. I even saw one woman… Never mind. Desa, I love
you and will go out once more to search for you even if I have to tear this
city apart. I plan to come home every day in the morning, so if you do read
this, then please stay home.
‘If I do not return
by noon time the next day, then I am sorry….. I love you, princess. Please stay
safe. All that matters is that you are alive and well.…’
“Dad….” Tears
streamed down Desaray’s cheeks as she hugged the letter to her chest. Her
father was probably out looking for her now, which means he did not disappear.
It is also possible that he might have evolved and gotten a system as well. “At
least I know you are alive…. I will wait…”
Sniffing and rubbing
her nose, she stuck the letter into her backpack before she walked over to the
entry, neatened her father’s boots, and cleaned up the dirt. She then went to
the kitchen and took out some food. She decided she would make her father’s favorite
meal, spaghetti with homemade sauce. It was not hard to do. It only took a
while to prepare. She wanted to give her father a nice hot meal in case he did
come home. She would wait for him. All night and all day.
She did not care. She would wait for her father to return….
If he did not return
by noon, she would leave him a letter telling him she had to run back to check
on Becky and bring them to her house. With the thoughts of being able to see
her father soon running through her mind, Desaray happily began cooking a meal
for the two of them to eat when he got home…..
◈◈◈
Outside not far away,
in a back alley, a goblin’s face smashed into the ground. A tall humanoid
sighed as it looked around. “That makes level 2… Luckily I learned a lot about
games from my little girl.” The figure had on a pair of black and yellow overalls
with his pinkish skin exposed. Muscles bulged out with spots of sweat trickling
down the massive muscles on his body. His red hair stood out against the moldy,
mossy city walls. The two black horns on his head were short and far from being
anything more than an accessory to look at.
“But to think that as
soon as I killed one of these green things, my entire body would change, and I
would get this system thing. I wonder if Desa will recognize me… But an Oni,
huh?” The oni, or more like Ricky Harris, Desaray’s adopted father, looked down
at his own hands that were covered in blood and let out another sigh. “I hope
she won’t be scared. I just hope she is alive…. I guess I can take another
look, as searching pointlessly will get me nowhere.”
Ricky was very
worried about Desaray. He had planned to keep searching all over, but he knew
it was pointless to search aimlessly. He also did not want to stray too far
from the house in case she returned. As long as she returned and saw his note,
he was sure she would stay put and wait for him. For the past few
hours, he had been cleaning up the monsters around the area in hopes of making
the place safe for his daughter, but the monsters kept appearing out of thin
air no matter how many he killed. They would stay dead for a short while but
reappear not long later. Where they were coming from, he had no idea.
“I guess I will stop
in the house once more…” Ricky decided to head home once again just in case. He
kept thinking that he would swing the door open and see his baby girl standing
there doing some housework or cooking. He could only hope she was safe.
Inside the house,
Desaray had some music on very low as she hummed along with it. She was
currently standing on a chair and dicing up some vegetables, her tail swaying
to the music. She really hoped her father would come back sooner rather than
later. She knew him well, if he was truly outside searching for her, he would
most likely come back a few times to see if she was here or not. She knew that
he knew there was only one place she would return to, especially if he left a
letter like he did.
An hour passed, and
Desaray was currently stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce when she heard keys at
the door. She already knew that the only person who would have keys to her
house and would use them at this time was her father. While nervous, she acted
like nothing was wrong as she continued to stir the pot of spaghetti sauce. She
knew that no matter what happened next, it was going to happen anyway. Instead
of running away and hiding, she decided it would be best to face it head-on and
act like everything was normal.
As the door opened,
Desaray clenched her fists and, with her best dragony smile, turned her head
and looked at the tall, muscular man who had just walked into the living room
and definitely did not look like her father and said:
“Wash up, food will be ready soon.”
“Huh? Oh right….”
Ricky had just walked in to see a blue lizard standing on a chair cooking in
his kitchen and nodded his head. He did not need to ask who the blue lizard
was. He had heard the same line many times now. He walked into his bedroom and
looked down at himself and realized he was covered in little green men’s blood,
and sighed. He hoped this did not frighten her. But at the same time, seeing
how she was already transformed meant that she had gone through a lot already.
Desaray’s eyes were
filled with tears. It was her father. He, too, had evolved into a new race. He
acted the same as always. He even said things the same way he always would.
With her scaly lips curled up and tears rolling down her blue cheeks, she
continued to stir the sauce happily.
While things were
looking up for Desaray, high above in the sky, a yellow blob was starting to
form. Golden yellow balls of light were slowly floating up into it in masses.
They seemed to be coming from all over the place and not just the area below.
The yellow blob of light was growing bigger and bigger by the second. It
stretched out for many miles, and while dim at the moment, if one looked
closely, it was starting to grow brighter and brighter by the second as well.
This was not the only place that had such a thing in the sky. In other parts of
the world, the same scene could also be seen all over if you were looking
carefully. The world that Desaray, her friends, and Ricky knew was about to
change more than they could ever imagine.
Earth was about to
change. Whether it was for the best or not was up to one’s own opinion. But one
thing that was for sure was that life would not be the same anymore….
Ricky cleaned up and
put on a pair of sweatpants since his normal jeans no longer fit his thickened
legs. Although they still rose up halfway past his calf. He walked out of his
bedroom and walked into the dining area to see his daughter setting up dishes
to the best of her ability. He could hear her grumbling about being too short,
which made him chuckle. “I am glad you are alive.”
“Mm…” Desaray nodded
with her head lowered. “I am glad you are okay as well… Dad…. Thank you for
staying alive and not disappearing.”
Ricky’s eyes began to
water up. He had to admit his weak point was his little girl. “As a man and a
father, I could not leave my little girl alone. Although it seems you did a
hell of a job out there. So what race are you?”
“Hehe!” Desaray’s
scaly lips curled up as she did a strange pose and said: “An ice dragon!”
“Oh! To think you got
to become the thing you love the most, while I got to become some kind of oni
thing. But I have to say I have become quite strong. I leveled up to two
already.” Ricky felt proud of himself as he stuck his hands on his hips and
made a proud pose.
“You are slacking! I,
your daughter, am level 4 already!” Desaray took the wind out of Ricky’s sails,
making him lower his head in shame.
“What the hell did
you kill to level up so fast? No better yet, just start from the beginning.
Tell me everything.” Ricky wanted to know what his
daughter had been through this entire time. In such a short time, so many
things had happened already.
Desaray explained
everything that had happened and how Becky and the others were waiting at an
apartment building across from the terrace. Then Ricky told her how things went
for him since he had left for work and found things off. He even had to jog to
work because of traffic.
“It seems the
incidents started near your school and then spread out from there. It is good
that you decided to turn around, or you might have run into something stronger
before you could even do anything. But to see two people turn into golden
yellow balls of light in front of me was just strange, and fear began to well
up inside me. I ran to the apartment hoping you had returned but ran into a
hairy humanoid dog thing that had a pickaxe. It attacked me on sight, so I
ended up bashing the crap out of it.” Ricky replied. “You have no idea how much
my heart dropped when I did not see you at the house. I left the note and ran
out of the house, hoping to find you. I am so glad you are alive.”
“Hehe. I was so
worried you would not recognize me, maybe even attack me, but it seemed I
worried for nothing. But I think I worried most about you either dying or
disappearing like so many have. Dad, do you have any idea what is hap….”
Desaray’s words got caught in her throat when she felt the ground begin to
shake violently. The dark skies outside started to turn bright once again,
causing both of them to jump up out of their seats and run to their windows.
In another part of
the city, Becky, Mike, Jake, and Yu all took refuge in Mike’s room, with Yu
guarding the window and Becky guarding the door. “What is happening!? What is
going on!?”
Jake quickly shut up.
He did not dare to anger Becky because he felt that she would really do it.
Becky snorted and slowly backed towards the window, and peeked outside. “The
sky… It’s a golden yellow…..”
The ground shook, and
those in hiding, new evolutions and humans alike, all turned to look at the
sky. It looked like the sky was the head of a faucet, and a water droplet had
started forming. It bowed down before starting to pull from its source. For those
staring at the sky, they could clearly see what seemed to be liquid made of
light within. The droplet really began to take shape until, finally, it could
no longer be held in place, and it fell….
There was no sound.
All those who were watching held their breaths. Even the monsters were not
making a sound. All eyes were on the sky and the massive water droplet that was
falling from the upper atmosphere. It hit the taller buildings, breaking them open
and shattering the first few floors in the process, causing the tops of these
buildings to snap off like a toothpick between a thumb and forefinger. If there
were people alive in those buildings, they had little chance of survival.
Ricky looked at the
massive rushing liquid light, and his mind spun. He did not even need to think
before grabbing Desaray into his arms and running towards the bathroom that was
closest to the hallway and jumping into the tub, pulling the shower curtain on
top of them, and holding his breath. He had not said a word and was only
waiting for the impact of the wave that was spreading throughout the city.
The building the two
were in started to shake violently, and then there was a loud crunching sound
followed by an explosion as the entire floor seemed to shift and began turning
sideways. The wave of light swept over the two, causing the bathtub Desaray and
Ricky were in to be pulled from the floor itself and swept away in the wave of
light as if an ocean wave had come crashing into their home. Desaray could only
hear the sound of rushing air and screams around them as she felt her father
pressing her down, holding her in place. She hugged his body to make it easier
for him, afraid he would sacrifice himself for her.
Ricky could only hold
on and keep his head down while gripping the sides of the bathtub. His fingers
hurt since something had already smashed into them, but he did not care. He
only wanted to protect the one who was most important in his life. The only reason
he still had to keep living even though this world was turning to shit. And he
would be damned if he would allow some strange wave of light to do any harm to
his family.
◈◈◈
Desaray shook her
head as she slowly crawled up from under the debris. She looked up at her hp,
which had dropped to 190, and sighed, thinking that she was truly lucky. She
then looked around for her father, feeling panicked when she did not see him
right next to her. “Dad!? Dad!?”
“Here!” A voice came
from not far away from under the rubble. When the bathtub hit the ground, they
both tumbled out of it and then were hit by a wave of
debris. If they were human, they would have definitely been dead.
Desaray hurried over
to the spot she heard the voice and began pulling the rubble up until she saw
her father full of wounds. Her eyes watered up as she quickly helped him out.
“How are you? What is your health at?”
“I am fine. I only
lost thirty health. Believe it or not, even though I am covered in blood, these
are only flesh wounds.” Ricky replied as he sat down. He did not even know who
to thank in this situation as it seemed that this world had no god, or else this
would never have happened unless all of this was God’s will. But for the time
being, he was just glad they both survived. He looked up at Desaray, who had a
few wounds on her underbelly and sighed as he reached out and placed his big
hand between her horns. “I am glad you survived.”
“I only survived
thanks to you protecting me… Are you sure you are okay? Wait, what am I even
doing!? First Aid!” Desaray had forgotten she had a kind of healing magic. A
stream of green light flowed from her hand and covered her father. She then
watched as the wounds on her father’s body began to heal up, only then did she
let out a relieved sigh.
“Thanks. First aid,
huh? I will take that too.” Ricky had not used his skill points since he did
not know what to take. He had planned to ask his daughter, but now he knew one
of the spells he should take.
“Oh, if you got
points, make sure to tak….” Desaray explained the few spells she took, which
Ricky went ahead and got as well.
Now getting to look
around, Desaray and Ricky were met with a wasteland. The city that once was
looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off. The buildings had been leveled, some
all the way to the ground, while others only had certain parts blown off. Smoke
rose up to the sky, covering it with a gray haze. Desaray frowned as she looked
around. She wondered if her backpack survived…
She began looking
around to see some of their household things mixed in with other things lying
around. “Dad, help me find my backpack…”
“Hmmm? We can just
find another. I am sure no one would care if we stole one from a department
store, if you can call it that now.” Ricky did not see why she wanted her
backpack when it would probably be impossible to find.
“No, I need that
backpack! It holds my treasures!” Desaray was starting to panic. Her dragon
instincts were starting to take over. She began frantically rummaging through
the debris as if she had gone crazy.
Ricky sighed and got
up, and started helping her search. He did not know what treasures she was
talking about, but it seemed to be very important to her to be acting like
this.
The two began digging
through the debris, and even an hour later, with no signs of ever finding it,
Desaray was not willing to give up. Her small scaly body kept lifting the steel
beams and concrete in hopes of finding her backpack. While Ricky wanted to
question why she cared so much about this backpack, he still kept quiet. He was
never one to push her to speak about things she did not
want to speak about. Unless he knew it was a very serious matter.
After three hours,
Desaray suddenly shouted out in happiness. “Found it!” Covered in dust and a
little banged up, Desaray held her backpack in her arms as if it was the most
precious thing in the world. She quickly opened it, only for her expression to
turn gloomy again. Her phone had been smashed, and some of her other things
were also broken. She sighed and zipped it back up before putting it back on
her back.
“Desa? You good?”
Ricky asked as he walked over and squatted down next to the little dragon.
“Mm… Some of my
treasure is broken, but I will try to fix it when I can.” Desaray sighed before
hugging her father and rubbing her snout on his chest. “Dad, let’s go find
Becky and the others.”
Ricky patted her back
and then lifted her up. He wondered how long it had been since he had carried
his baby girl like this. He smiled as she hugged his neck. While she was no
longer human, she was still his daughter and always will be. This was something
that would never change, no matter what she turned into.
Desaray was still
gloomy over her treasures being broken. While they were nothing more than a
phone, some pencils and pens, along with some papers and books, she had
instinctively taken these items as her treasures for one reason or another. She
was currently running through her menu, trying to find something that could
protect her treasures better since the backpack was unable to do that.
“I think whatever
that wave of light was scared most of the monsters away or killed them
altogether.” Ricky had noticed that he did not see any monsters around. But he
could not be sure they would not reappear again like the
monsters he killed before.
“I doubt it. I think
that golden yellow wave of light was just the beginning.”
◈◈◈
“Everyone okay!?”
Becky asked as she looked around. The building they were in had lost all the
upper floors. Even the apartment they were in was almost completely gone. They
were lucky, and the room that Mike was recuperating in was actually quite
sturdy, and even when the wave of light passed over them, it did not break
apart the entire wall blocking them from being consumed.
“I am fine!” Yu was
the next to call out. She looked down at Mike, who was staring back up at her
in surprise. Yu had thrown herself on top of him to protect him from any fallen
debris.
He watched as blood
trickled down from her head and yelled out: “How are you fine!? You are
bleeding!”
“What!?” Becky ran
over, and sure enough, there was a big gash on the top of her head. “Yu, come
here! We need to bandage this up!”
Becky did not waste
time as she ripped up the sheet Mike was using, pulled Yu over, and began
wrapping it around her head to try to stop the bleeding. “How is your hp?”
“Still good, I guess.
25 of 35 health at the moment.” Yu replied. She was starting to feel a little
dizzy.
“Don’t move around
too much. In fact, lay down next to Mike. Mike, take care of her. I will check
on Jake.” Becky finished tightening the makeshift bandage around Yu’s head and
pushed her to the other side of Mike. Mike blushed but
pulled the blankets down for Yu to get in. Yu hesitated for a second, but under
Becky’s stern stare, she did as she was told and laid down next to Mike.
“Just rest up, and
thank you.” Mike felt a little embarrassed. At first, it was Desaray who was
protecting him, and now Yu was shielding him from harm. He was feeling his
manliness was slowly starting to disappear.
“There is no need for
thanks. I did it because I wanted to.” Yu replied. Becky, who was about to hop
off the bed, almost burst out laughing at the corny couple. But she was happy
the two were getting along so well.
She looked around to
see Jake huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth while hugging his knees,
and sighed. She reluctantly walked over to him and asked: “You going to make
it?”
“We are going to die.
We are going to die. We are going to die.” Jake was only chanting these five
words over and over, which was starting to annoy Becky.
Without any
hesitation, she reached out and slapped him across the face! “Get a hold of
yourself! Do you think you are the only one who is frightened right now!?”
Becky just couldn’t
stand it. The entire time he had been acting as if he was the only one in
danger. She did not understand what was going on in his head that made him
think he was the only one who was scared about their current situation. Yes,
they were dealing with it better, but him acting this way was not helping
everyone else.
Becky was not going
to stand there and take any crap from Jake anymore. She had been sick of him
since he was unwilling to check on Desaray. “What is the matter with you!? Do
you really think I am not just as scared as you are!? I have no idea how my family
is doing. None of us do! I do not need to stay here and look after you! I am
only here protecting you because Desa asked me to! If it were not for her, you
would probably have become monster food by now! But all you do is complain.
Complain! COMPLAIN! Stop standing on your high horse thinking you are some damn
prince! You are not the only one here who wishes for this all to end. You are
not the only one here who wants to go home! You are not the only one here who
wants to go back to their family. But we are still alive. We are living because
we followed Desa, who from the start had only wanted to protect us, even you,
who would not even go look to find out if she was alright after she stayed
behind to protect Mike!”
“Where the hell is
she now!? She has already abandoned us! She is long….”
*Slap!*
Jake was sent flying.
Becky had slapped him hard with all her strength. She had jumped up in the air
and used the open side of her claws to smack Jake in the face. He flew through
the air and crashed into the closet door, breaking it off its hinges. She stormed
over to him and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, and looked at him with
eyes filled with hate. “Say one more word, and I will
treat you like a goblin. Desa would never abandon us. I can guarantee that she
is probably on her way here now. Do you think we are the only ones who got
caught up in that blast or whatever it was!? Look at the sky! It’s covered in
gray clouds and light out when it should be dark out. Our world has already
gone to shit but even so! Desa would never abandon her friends. Even a piece of
crap like you!”
Becky pushed Jake
into the broken door before snorting and walking a few steps before stopping
once more, wiping her tear-filled eyes, and looking back at him. “Say that ever
again, and I will be sure to tear your throat out.” Becky’s own dragon instincts
were starting to take over. Her anger had already been clouded by her new race.
At this time, she did not see Jake as a human being but as an insect that she
could squash at any time.
Chapter 7
“Dad, wait!” Desaray
hopped down from her father’s arms and ran over to a blue blob. She picked it
up to see what would happen, and luckily it did not seem to try to attack her
in any way.
“Desa, what are you?”
Ricky was confused. He did not know why his daughter was picking a monster up.
“I promised to bring
back a slime for Mike and Jake to kill. Although if I can only find one, then
it will go to Mike as Jake has been… well, let’s just say that Mike, who was
unconscious the entire time, was more manly than him.” Desaray replied while shaking
her head. She hoped the kid was still alive. She knew Becky was getting sick of
him.
Ricky did not know
what to say. He really wondered what this Jake kid was doing to make his
daughter say this. “Alright, but let me hold the slime thing.”
Desaray nodded and
handed it over. Ricky took it and held it in his arms as the two slowly made
their way through the rubble. They were already in the area of the terrace, but
the flood of debris now covered the entire park. The art and statues that once
stood tall were nowhere to be seen. It was just a layer of rubble.
“Ah! Monsters!” A
voice yelled out.
“Why?” Ricky asked,
but instead of letting Desaray answer as he continued: “What is the point at
this stage of the game? I have nothing to use to treat them, and even if I did,
I would save it for you and your friends. Plus, she just called my daughter a
monster.”
Desaray let out a
laugh as she held Ricky’s hand. She wondered how long it had been since she
held his hand like this and looked up at him from her new height. The man who
gave her the love and care of a family and was the same man who saved her when
she could have died. She had always seen her father as a hero much greater than
any of the superheroes in the movies. “Mmm… Our world is probably no more. I do
wonder what will happen in the years to come.”
“All I know is that
my heart will not be too good since I know we will need to level up. And that
means killing monsters. It will be dangerous, and if you were to get hurt….”
Ricky sighed. “But what needs to be done needs to be done. I will do my best not
to hold you back.”
“We both have
appraisal now, so we can check to see what level monsters are. As long as we do
not try to fight anything too strong, we will be fin… Hold on, Dad, follow me!”
Desaray smelled a familiar stench and ran over to a pile of rubble. Ricky was a
bit confused but hurried after his daughter, who began lifting
whole building walls and tossing them to the side. He had to marvel at her
strength.
As Desaray dug, the
smell got worse, but she had a feeling that the smell was not something bad per
se. “Desa, what the hell is that smell?”
“Dad, don’t be rude!”
Desaray chided her father before finally pulling up a large chunk of concrete
to reveal a body underneath. She held it up and called down to the body.
“Claire? No… not who I thought it was.” The body was definitely an undead, but
it was not Claire who she had met before. Not caring anymore, Desaray dropped
the slab of concrete and shrugged as she began to walk away.
“Desa, what was
that!?” Ricky was even more confused now. He had seen a person under the rubble
that looked like a zombie. They were moving, but their body was a twisted mess.
“I thought it was a
friend I met earlier. She wanted me to kill her because she evolved into an
undead and I talked her out of it. I feel that with this evolution thing, we
might have a chance to have a humanoid form once again. After all, I can walk
on two legs just fine. If I evolve again, will I have a humanoid form? Or will
I just turn into a bigger version of my current self? I think the same would go
for an undead. A lich is quite close to being alive. In many games and manga
that I have read, they were no different from a living human. They are just
undead.
“The more I look at
things, the more I think things are more in-tuned to have something to do with
our history and culture of fantasy and myth. What if the things we are turning
into are the result of long-dormant DNA? DNA that has always been in us but never
got the chance to be revived until now? What if this world is not what we
actually thought it was?
“Haha!” Ricky let out
a laugh and looked down at his daughter with a smile. When they reached 5th
Avenue, they saw that the street was somewhat clear, but the buildings along it
were once more demolished.
As soon as Desaray
saw the building a few streets over, where Becky and the others were supposed
to be, were demolished, she began to worry. “Dad, let’s hurry! Becky and the
others are in that building over there!”
◈◈◈
The entire entrance
to the building was blocked off. Cement, metal, glass, and even furnishings
were layered up past the second floor. “Dad, I think we will need to climb
through a window.”
Ricky rubbed his head
and sighed as he looked at the devastation. He pictured this happening when
there were more people around, and he could expect there
to be millions of lives lost. Then again, there would be millions of lives lost
either way now that he was thinking about it. Those who have evolved and those
who had hidden away, not wanting to go outside. He wondered how many were at
the top of these buildings. “Just pick one without anyone in it. I do not want
you being called a monster or attacked by humans.”
“It’s fine. They
can’t hurt me.” Desaray grinned. She was about to kick a window in when a
thought came to mind. She looked up towards the floors above and yelled out:
“Becky! Yu! Mike!”
Up in the room that
was missing a ceiling. Becky almost jumped in excitement when she heard
Desaray’s voice. She ran to the window and looked down, and yelled out: “Desa!
Huh? I could have sworn I heard her?”
Becky stared down at
the rubble below and noticed that there was no one there. But Yu, who was lying
in bed, reassured her she did not hear wrong. “She is on the other side of the
building.”
Becky nodded and
yelled out the window once more: “Desa, we are on the other side!”
Down below, Desaray
heard Becky and grabbed her Father’s hand and pulled him along. The two quickly
made their way around the building to see Becky half hanging out the window,
looking down at them. “Becky!”
“Desa! You are safe!”
Becky’s eyes shined, seeing how Desaray looked unharmed.
“Yeah! And look!”
Desaray raised her hand that was holding Her father’s and smiled brightly. “I
found my Dad!”
“Sorry, I did not
have time to check….” Desaray lowered her head. She had been so excited that
her own father was alive, and yet…. “I am sorry, Becky…”
“It’s fine…” Becky’s
heart sank. She could yell out that Desaray was being selfish, but she knew it
was not Desaray’s fault. She held back the tears forming in her eyes and forced
a smile. “I had already expected the worst. You know my parents… they are too
weak and snotty.”
“Becky….” Desaray did
not know what to say. She bit her scaly lip before saying: “We will go look. We
will search around to see if there are any signs of them.”
“Okay…” Becky nodded.
She then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Come on up. Yu was hurt
while trying to protect Mike. She is slowly healing, though. Should only be a
few more hours before her Health is back to one hundred percent.”
“Okay, we will be
there soon.” Desaray gave Becky a wave before she walked over to the patio door
to one of the apartments and stepped through the broken glass.
The entrance was a
mess, but the further you went in, the more it still looked like someone’s
home. She and Ricky made their way to the front door and opened it to see a
clean hallway. “I wonder if anyone is still alive on this floor…”
“I know. But if I
looked at everyone as an enemy, you can not make more friends later on, right?
I would not have met Claire if I had attacked her, thinking she was a monster.
And she was quite a nice person. Just someone who evolved into a zombie. I felt
really bad for her, but she seemed to feel much better after we talked. Maybe
when she evolves a few times, she might become something you can date.” Desaray
teased while sticking her tongue out at her father.
He snorted and waved
her comment off. “Just be careful. Just because we have evolved, that does not
mean the heart of evil still does not exist.”
“I know!” Desaray
pressed her lips together as she bumped her father. “Let’s hurry up. I want to
see what Mike evolves into.”
“Alright. Let’s take
the stairs.” Ricky and Desaray quickly ascended the stairs leading up. The
sixth-floor door was blocked with rubble, so they had to climb over it and make
their way to where Becky and the others were. When they arrived, Becky dove into
Desaray and hugged her tightly.
“I am so glad you are
safe.” Becky had a feeling her parents either died during the light wave or
disappeared altogether. While she had this gut feeling, she still wanted to
look for them. But even with these feelings, she was very glad her best friend
was alive and well even after what had happened.
“I am happy you are
okay too. Sorry for not checking your apartment….” Desaray began explaining
things. She explained how her father left her a letter
that stated he would come back in the morning. Once Becky heard the details,
she understood. She knew that if, by chance, Desaray went to her floor to check
on her apartment, there could have been a slim chance of her missing her
father.
Becky knew if that
was her, she would have done the same. She would have stayed home and waited.
Even if she could have left a note to her parents stating that she was going to
check on the latter, there was no telling what might have happened. Wind, a monster,
anything could make that letter fall off and get hidden one way or another.
Even if something like that was a one in a million chance, she would not have
taken the risk. Then she would be the one apologizing to Desaray and not
Desaray apologizing to her. But she still could not help but feel sad and
scared. But she also felt reassured that she still had Desaray at her side. A
person who was just as much family to her as her own parents.
◈◈◈
“To think Mr. Harris
evolved too. Well, I guess it would be expected of a man roaming around looking
for his daughter.” Becky couldn’t help but feel Desaray’s father had become
more handsome than before.
“Little girl, you are
too young for my dad, so forget about it.” Desaray stepped in front of her
father and knocked Becky on the head. She had long known about Becky’s crush on
her father.
“Wha-Wha-What are you
talking about!? And I am no longer a little girl; I am a dragon! Human
standards no longer apply!” Becky tried to make her argument, but her voice got
meeker and meeker as she spoke. She was still too shy to actually confess her
love.
“I am not pregnant!
No more than that, we didn’t do anything!” Yu cried out. She wanted to pinch
that teasing smile off of Desaray’s face.
“Hehe.” Desaray
chuckled as she hopped up on the bed before turning to her father and waving
him over. Ricky came over and produced the slime he had been holding. “We only
saw one on the way here, so Mike, you will get it.”
“Wait!? Why does he
get it!?” Jake’s voice came from behind Desaray and the others. Desaray turned
to see Jake standing up with a huge lump on his cheek and a black eye. “I
carried him here! Why does he get to have the slime and evolve, and I do not!?”
“Why do you think you
should get it? We protected you the entire time. Mike also was willing to put
his life on the line for others while you only cried and complained. Why the
hell should you get anything? Jake, do I need to beat you up again!? Should I
follow through with my promise and rip your throat out!?” Becky cut in. Desaray
could see that she was genuinely angry. She could only guess that Jake must
have said or done something to really make Becky turn into her evil side.
“Calm down, Becky,
while he is annoying, stupid, weak, and has the backbone of a jellyfish, he is
still a human being… I think…. Anyway,” Desaray turned to Jake, who was staring
at Becky and her with hatred in his eyes. He seemed to have long stopped caring about anything but himself it seemed. “Jake, if you
want to evolve so badly, then go find a slime on your own if you are going to
act like this. Neither I, nor my father, have any obligation to help anyone
here. If you do not like it, too bad.”
“You! Always needing
to get the last word in!” Jake hated how girls always had to have the last
word. He turned away from them, knowing he could not win against the two with
words, and asked Ricky: “Mr. Harris, I know she is your daughter, but why are
you letting her act like this!? Wouldn’t it be fair to give the person who
worked the hardest the benefits?”
“It’s not my say who
gets what.” Ricky disliked this young man. He always felt he was a spoiled
brat. His parents, who he had met at parent-teacher conferences, even looked
down on his daughter for not having a mother. “She is the leader now. I am the
one who knows little about this new world. So what she says goes. If she wants
to give it to Mike, then that is her decision.”
“Wha?” Jake did not
understand why a father would take orders from his daughter. He looked at
everyone in the room, who were all looking at him with eyes filled with disgust
and hate, and realized he was not wanted here. “Hah…. Hahaha! Fine! Since this
is how it is, then I will go. But just wait. If I am able to survive out there
and I grow strong, do not come begging for me to come back!”
“Okay, have fun.
Don’t die of starvation or get eaten. Make sure to take the stick out of your
butt as well. It makes you walk funny.” Becky made sure to toss a few jabs in
as she watched Jake struggle to climb over the wall of debris.
Ricky sighed, looked
at Desaray, and asked: “You okay with this?”
“Alright…” Mike took
the rock and raised it up before slamming it down as hard as he could at the
core of the slime. The slime instantly turned into a puddle of liquid as the
core crushed. Mike fell over in pain while Yu and Desaray quickly jumped off the
bed as a brown fog began to swirl around Mike.
On top of the rubble,
looking down into the room, Jake gritted his teeth. He did not understand what
made Mike so much better than him. He did not wish to stay any longer as he
marched off in anger. After everything that had happened, he seemed to have snapped.
Whether this was good or bad, only time would tell….
◈◈◈
“Desa, I know I went
through the same thing, but are you sure this will be safe?” Yu asked. She was
feeling quite worried about Mike. She knew that it was a very painful process
to gain a system and evolve.
“Mmm… I do not think
anyone can die during the process. If they do, they may become an undead at the
minimum. But I could be wrong. We can only hope things will work out. But you
have to remember Mike is strong. He is not weak in the slightest.” Desaray did
not think Mike was weak at all. No one weak would be able to risk their life
for another. Strength alone did not matter. It was a
person’s heart and their will that made them strong. Mike was strong in
Desaray’s eyes.
Yu reached out and
held Desaray’s hand as if trying to calm her emotions. She watched the fog as
it spun around in a dome-like shape. After quite a few minutes, the fog began
to slowly dissipate. What was revealed was not exactly what everyone was expecting.
A lump of rocks was in the place where Mike had been sitting.
Yu slowly walked over
to the bed and called out to the lump of rocks. “Mike?”
“Hmmm?” The rocks
shook and slowly came together and stood up. They did not look human but had a
humanoid shape. A red glowing orb was embedded into the head acting like an
eye. It was nothing more than a mass of rocks put together, making up Mike’s
body. “This is…. I became a rock!?”
“Haha!” Desaray
couldn’t hold back as she let out a laugh. But she also smiled warmly at the
rocky person in front of her. “I think it is quite fitting for a man who used
himself as a shield. If I am not wrong, you have evolved into a golem, right?”
“Ah? Yeah…. I am an
earth golem.” Mike nodded. He looked at his hands which were nothing more than
a bunch of rocks put together. He also felt his vision was much wider, as if he
could see all around him.
“Thank god you are
okay!” Yu jumped up onto the bed and hugged Mike, causing the rock, which acted
as his head, to turn a slight pinkish color. Desaray found this quite amusing.
“Looks like we got a
full team!” Becky replied. They had a Tank now, which would be Mike, and they
had DPS along with heals that could be given out by everyone as long as they
leveled.
“Mmm… That is if Mike’s
Health is high. Mike, what is your health at level 1?” Desaray asked.
“100. Is this high?”
Mike asked, causing everyone’s expressions to sink.
“I would say! Mines
only 200, and I am level 4!” Desaray pursed her lips. She thought dragons were
supposed to have the highest health!
“It works out in the
end, so it’s fine. Desa and Mike will be our forwards. Since Mike’s health is
lower, he will be the off-tank until he surpasses Desa’s health. I am unsure
about defense though, so we will need to check this as we try to level up. ” Becky
patted Desaray’s sulking back. She knew that Desaray put dragons above all
other fantasy monsters.
“Yeah, we will go
with Becky’s plan. Our current situation is no different from a game. So if we
want to survive, we will need to treat it as such. Mike, if your stats are
geared toward defense, then you should think about spending your points on
skills that can boost this aspect. But do not neglect healing.” Desaray patted
her cheeks to boost her spirits. She also wanted to make sure that Mike always
had a way to heal if one of them could not do it. Self-preservation was still
very important.
“I will keep that in
mind. Should I start with the basics, as you called them?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, get the basics
since the skills will come in handy at any time.” Desaray nodded. The few she
took would come in handy at any level and time.
“Okay, so since that
is decided, what is our next move?” Ricky asked, his eyes falling on Desaray.
“Desa, I think we
have bigger problems….. The sky…” Becky pointed at the sky that was once more a
bright golden yellow with a look of fear in her eyes. She slowly moved towards
Desaray and Ricky to feel a bit of security in numbers. She knew if this dropped
and her parents were still alive that this might just kill them if they had yet
to evolve.
“Dad, what should we
do!?” Desaray asked, reaching out to hold his hand. Even Desaray couldn’t hide
her fear. After the last light wave, she was kind of scared of these huge drops
of light in the sky. Her big watery eyes stared up at the sky.
“Everyone to the
corner over there where all the debris is piled up against the wall. We will
use it to shield us from the wave so we are not swallowed by it. Huddle
together!”
◈◈◈
Ricky did not even
think when he pulled the kids to the corner and used his body as a shield to
protect them. With his new body, he was almost seven feet tall and had a large
muscular build, while Yu, Mike, Becky, and Desaray were all around four feet tall
and on the small side. He hovered over them with his eyes closed, waiting for
the impact from the light wave.
Up in the sky
overhead, Desaray could see the liquid light once more building up, but unlike
before, it did not seem to be forming a water drop. She
watched in horror as the liquid light suddenly fell from the sky as if the
faucet had been turned on full blast. It rained down and crashed into the
ground. The buildings directly underneath were blocked by the blinding light making
it impossible to see what had happened to them. The liquid light spread out in
a massive tsunami in all directions.
The entire time
Desaray’s eyes were locked onto the huge golden-yellow wave that was rushing
toward them. She instinctively reached out and held on to her father’s arm, her
eyes unblinking. She could not bring herself to close them.
As the wave got
closer and closer, Desaray wondered if this was the end. Before things could
even really get started, they would all be swept away and crushed by the impact
as they mashed into buildings. But to her surprise and against all
expectations, the wave of light slammed into them, but there was no impact. The
wave itself had little to no resistance. It swept over them as if they were not
even there. What was even more surprising was the notifications they were
getting.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
It was not much, but each
one of them gained 6 levels instantly as the wave of light swept past them.
Desaray shot up to level 10 from 4, while her father, Ricky, went from level 2
to 8. Becky, Yu, and Mike shot up to level 7. All their stats increased as well
by leaps and bounds.
[Name]: Desaray
Harris
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 10
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 500/500
[MP]: 375/375
[Skill Points]: 30
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)} {Toughened Skin
(Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)}
Before, Desaray had
200 Health and 95 Mana, now, she has 500 Health and 375 Mana. The huge jump was
very much unexpected. This also halved her evolution requirements as well.
“This….” Desaray was
the first to react. She could feel a huge surge of strength within her. She
looked up at her father, who was looking back at her with wide eyes. He, too,
felt a huge strength increase.
“Look!” Becky cried
out, causing everyone to turn toward what she was pointing at.
What lay before them
was no longer a world of destruction but green overgrowth with many flowers
covering the fallen city debris. Golden yellow balls of light rose up and
danced in the air from this new beautiful greenery.
“I can only assume….”
Desaray’s eyes were wide. Living in New York all her life, she rarely got to
see such greenery. She took a deep breath and could feel there was something in
the air besides the normal gasses that made up the air around them. It felt
invigorating to take a deep breath.
As they were in awe
of their new surroundings, another message popped up in front of them.
[System Upgrade
Commencing….]
[Download 5%….]
[Download 10%….]
[Download 40%….]
[Download 70%….]
[Download 100%….]
[Updating 1%…..]
[Updating 20%…..]
[Updating 50%…..]
[Updating 100%…..]
[System Update
Complete….]
[New System Function:
Team Window Now Available….]
[New System Function:
Raid Window Now Available….]
[New System Function:
Guilds Now Available….]
[New System Function:
Inventory Now Available….]
[New World Function:
Dungeons Now Available….]
[New World Function:
Raids Now Available….]
[New World Function:
World Bosses Now Available….]
[New World Function:
Monster Camps Now Available….]
[New World Function:
Quests Now Available….]
[World System
Notification: World Changes Will Soon Occur.]
[Changes will result in
drastic changes to the terrain. Please prepare to avoid disasters.]
Everyone stared at
the long list of notifications with wide eyes. Their world. The world they were
living their everyday lives in had suddenly become a game world. It was no
longer just as simple as getting a system. The world itself was about to
undergo drastic changes that would make the place they had lived in for years
become unrecognizable.
“Desa, what do you
think?” Ricky asked. He knew about games but never had time to play them. Only
his daughter played them, so he would go with what she decided.
“I think we should
head to the park for the time being. It is the only place with the lowest
amount of debris from the buildings. We should gather as much food from the
surroundings as possible, as we now have inventories. We need to hurry since
there is no exact time frame of when the terrain will change, we need to take
advantage of this time to gather food and water.
“We will go through
the buildings and the store at the corner of 5th Avenue, what’s left of it
anyways. Stash as much as we can away and hope we can get by for the time
being.” Desaray paused for a moment before looking at her father and saying:
“If we see anyone else doing the same…. We should ignore old morals and take
what we can even if it means killing.”
“Understood.” Ricky,
at this point, cared more about keeping his daughter and her friends alive than
anything else. So even if it meant killing those who
used to be humans, he was willing. Food was now scarce due to the light waves
destroying things. They had to get everything they could.
“You three get the
basics for now. Appraisal will come in very handy now that new flora and fauna
have appeared. We can see if there is anything edible as well. Right now, our
main course of action is survival. As for your parents…..” Desaray felt sorry for
the three, but right now was not the time to be looking for parents.
“Desa, don’t worry,
we understand,” Becky replied with a pained smile. While it was tough, they
knew it was not time to be searching for anyone. Not in this situation when
they did not know what would happen next.
Chapter 8
Desaray had everyone
take the basic skills, so they each had first aid as well as appraisal. With
their new inventories, Desaray was able to stick her entire bag into what was
no different from a slot-based inventory system you would find in any MMO.
After that, she began searching the lower floors that had not been harmed by
the light wave and stored many things. Food, blankets, and stuff that they
would need to at least live a somewhat comfortable life while they waited out
the new changes that were about to occur.
Once they cleared the
building they were in, they made their way to the store on 5th Avenue. As they
walked, Desaray was quite curious about how it was to walk around in a body
like Mike’s. She kept taking peeks at him as they made their way over the rubble.
She was in the rear while her father took point. Becky, Mike, and Yu were in
the middle. Yu, however, started to wonder if Desaray took a liking to Mike
when she saw her staring at him. “Desa, is something wrong with Mike?”
Desaray smiled
hearing Yu speaking up like this. She could hear a hint of jealousy in her
voice. “No, I was just curious about how he walks. The movement of the rocks
are perfectly synced. While he has normal hands, his feet are different and are
kind of like cylinders that are flat on the bottom and round on top. I was
wondering how he was able to climb up over the debris so easily. Normally
wouldn’t the lack of tread make it harder to walk?”
Desaray grinned
seeing how Yu was acting. She bumped her with her elbow and whispered to her.
“Don’t worry. I will not try to steal him from you. I will support you, but you
shouldn’t wait too long to tell him how you feel.”
“I….” Yu was going to
deny it but stopped herself. While she was embarrassed, it was not to the point
that she was willing to run away. She did like Mike. This was a fact that she
did not wish to deny. She lowered her head slightly and nodded as she took a
peek at the boy she liked, who was walking behind Becky. She needed to find the
right time to speak to him.
They made their way
over to 5th Avenue, where they were met with another group of people. But these
people were not like them, they were still human. Both groups stopped and
looked at each other as if they were deer in headlights. It was not until a
young boy from the human group yelled out did both sides finally react.
“Monsters!”
“Monster yourself,
kid! We used to be human too! Once you kill a monster, you will end up just
like us!” Becky was the first to yell back at the kid. While she knew she was
indeed a monster, she did not like being called as such. She never killed
anyone. The only thing that she had killed since the start of all of this was
the slime that turned her into what she was now!
“Lier!” The boy
yelled back. “We killed a few monsters, and no one turned out like you!”
“It’s true.” The man,
who seemed to be the boy’s father, pulled the boy back, nodded, and answered.
He was shocked to see monsters talking. “Were….” He paused and looked at Ricky
and his group before continuing: “Were you really human?”
“Yes.” Desaray
stepped forward and replied. “We were all human. In our group, you can say that
I was the first to change. I killed a goblin and turned into this. My friends
killed slimes, and my father killed a goblin as well. We each got a system upon
killing them and changed into what you see before you.”
“I see… We killed
little green men, and not too long ago, my son killed a blue ball thing.
Nothing happened to us besides the blue window that popped up. The system you
speak of.” The man looked at his family, who were indeed all still humans, and
wondered what he would have done if they had changed into monsters. But after
thinking about what his son said, he felt slightly bad as well. He looked at
Ricky and the others and decided to apologize. “I am sorry for my son’s words.
He was rude.”
“It’s fine. He is
young.” Ricky replied with a forced smile. He turned and looked at Desaray, who
nodded at him before looking back at the man. “If you would excuse us.”
“Huh? Yeah…” The man
replied somewhat absentmindedly. He watched as Desaray and her group began to
walk away. He was quickly brought out of his stupor when he felt a pinch in his
side. His wife whispered in a slight panic as she said: “Honey! Look where they
are going!”
“This…. Hey!” The man
yelled after Ricky causing Desaray’s group to stop and turn towards the man.
“Yeah?” Ricky already
promised himself he would not give up anything that would allow his daughter
and her friends to survive another day. With no sources of known food yet, they
were not planning on giving up any resources. So as he looked over at the man,
his eyes narrowed.
“Are…. Are you
planning to go to the store? My family and I were also going to go th…..”
Before the man could finish speaking, a fireball suddenly slammed into the
debris in front of him, causing him to pull his son and wife into his arms and
jump back to dodge the sudden attack. He looked up to see a blue-scaled lizard
staring back at him.
“Sorry, but find you
or sources of food. We are calling dibs on this store.” Desaray snorted. She
felt bad for having to do this, but there was only so much food to go around.
◈◈◈
“What!? You can’t be
thinking of keeping it all to yourself!” The woman who was standing beside the
man was enraged. She did not want to lose a source of food that could feed her
child.
“Look, we do not want
a confrontation, but we will not give up anything that will allow me and those
I am protecting to live. As you can see, we are five. You are three. We need
more resources than you do. Just because we are claiming this store does not
mean you can not do the same elsewhere. But if you want to fight over this
store, then we do not mind fighting it out. Even if you have a system, we
already did not start on fairgrounds.” Ricky had a feeling humans did not get
any special abilities when they got their system. He was
making a wild guess, but he always trusted his gut in situations like these.
He got a skill called
enhanced strength. While he needed to level it, it was still something that
boosted his strength by quite a bit. Everyone here had one special ability or
two that came with their evolution. If those who did not evolve got more than just
the system, Ricky felt that it would be a bit unfair since the evolution
process was very painful to go through.
The man took Ricky’s
words as a threat. To him, the meaning was that the former humans were stronger
and outnumbered them. While even if this was a bluff, the man understood that
there was no way that he and his family could win against the five of them. He
gritted his teeth and snorted before saying: “We are going. But do not think
just because you all evolved into monsters, that you are any better than those
things out there. As you know from being a former human, humans have always
prevailed.”
“Think what you want.
We do not think we are any better than we were before. But since you are giving
up, we will be on our way.” Ricky did not care for the cold glare the man gave
him. He felt bad for the child since if they do not get food, he will end up
suffering but…. He looked at Desaray and the other three kids in his care and
took a deep breath. He had four lives here to protect. He could not protect the
world.
“Dad….” Desaray held
her father’s hand. She could tell that he was not feeling too good at this
time.
As Desaray and the
rest walked away. The man and his wife stared at them with eyes filled with
hate. “Tom, what do we do? If we can not find a few sources of food to stick
into these inventory things, we are screwed!”
When Desaray and the
rest arrived at the store, Desaray did a quick check to make sure no one was
inside. They did not want to get ambushed or anything. “Clear.”
After announcing that
the place was clear, Desaray climbed in through the broken window and was
quickly followed by the others. “Take everything. Even if we can not use it,
take it. If the inventory does not let items spoil, we can maybe use them to
trade later on. A pack of cigarettes or even pills from the pharmacy might be
used for trading for other items later on.”
Desaray was trying to
think far ahead in the future. She had no doubts that even after the landscape
changed or even when more monsters began to show up again that colonies of
survivors would begin to pop up, and there would be some form of currency system
in place. Whether it was bartering or something else, she did not know. Right
now, she only wanted to prepare for that time, just in case.
“My side is clear!”
Becky yelled out. This was followed by everyone else as well. Ricky was in
charge of the alcohol sections and pharmacy. While the kids, Desaray, and her
friends took everything else.
With the store now
cleaned out, the group crossed 5th Avenue and entered the park near the
terrace. They had to find a spot that was not filled too much with debris and
claim it as their own. Desaray had suggested that they set up a place using the
debris to form a barrier as a means of creating some protection from others
during this time. When the system said the terrain would change, she did not
know what would happen. But if the so-called monster camps appeared right next
to them, they needed a way to defend themselves. It was also good to have a
barrier to protect themselves from other survivors as well.
◈◈◈
Three days passed,
and Desaray and her group had built up a small camp that had rubble surrounding
it, making a moon-shaped wall that connected to a huge pile of debris as a
barrier for the back side of the camp that had a large overhang. The overhang
gave them protection from the weather if there were to be any weather from this
point on.
The camp area was
only around two thousand square feet and gave them enough space so that they
were not clustered together. They did not have any tents or anything like that,
but they did have blankets and pillows to give them some comfort while they slept.
One thing they did
realize was that the food went in, but it did not seem to come out after their
evolution. They still seemed to need food to live, but for some reason, it did
not cycle through their body but more like it was completely turned into energy,
and nothing was wasted. This, of course, was a big plus to the three girls
since they would not need to do their business out in public. While they were
now monsters, it did not mean that they were willing to just stop by a bush and
do their duty, literally.
The sky had finally
cleared up. The clouds that once filled the sky gave way to blue skies on the
second day after what Desaray called the Grand Fall, the day the sky fell. With
their new appraisal skill, they had found a few edible plants as well as some
which were marked as crafting items which Desaray had everyone collect just in
case.
But on this night,
the night of the third day, Desaray was sitting on top of the wall made of
debris, looking up at the stars. Her short legs were swaying back and forth
while her tail flipped up and down every so often. She had grown quite used to
her new body and did not find anything strange about it anymore. She let out a
sigh as she looked up at the moon. The same moon she had seen many times since
she was young. “I wonder what will happen in the future.”
“Sighing at your age
is not good.” Ricky’s voice came from behind her.
Ricky jumped up onto
the wall, sat next to her, and placed his big palm on her head. “You are still
young. Although things have changed, you do not need to take on so much
responsibility. You have kept them alive all this time, have you not?”
Desaray nodded as she
bumped her head up and down so her father would pat it. She found head pats in
her current form to be very nice. “But even still…. I feel that our lives are
far from being able to be carefree anymore. While I am happy we have all lived
to this point, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. You know those who
stayed humans will probably never accept us as we are. Each one of us needs to
level up to level twenty and evolve once more. And hopefully, by doing so, we
will be able to take on a humanoid form of some kind. While I do think this
form is quite cute, I do not want to stay like this forever. Of course, if I am
forced to be in a dragon form all the time, then there is nothing I can do
about it. I mean, it would be cool to have a huge dragon form.”
“I never thought of
that. But yeah, I guess you are right. Humans that did not evolve into monsters
will probably see us as just that, monsters. It might take a while to get them
to wake up and realize we are still the same, just different looking. But then
again, humans have always had a history of looking down on things that were
different from them.” Ricky sighed.
He thought back to
the human couple with the kid and realized he had already made enemies. But
they had to stand their ground. He felt bad, but at the same time, he knew it
was something that had to be done. With an unknown future, having to think for himself and his family was the most important
at this time.
As the night settled
in, Desaray continued her stargazing while her father went to rest. With no
lights to pollute the skies, the Milky Way filled her eyes. She couldn’t help
but feel that seeing such a sight with her own eyes and not on the computer or tv
was a very surreal sight. Sadly this quiet time did not last long.
The ground suddenly
began shaking violently. This shaking was followed by a loud roar as if some
huge monster had decided to wake up. As Desaray braced herself on the wall she
was on, she turned to look at her father and her friends, who were about fifty
feet away, trying to stand up but kept falling over. “Dad!”
“Desa!” Ricky was
panicking. The ground was shaking so badly that every time he got his footing,
he fell over.
A loud rumbling sound
began to fill the air. Desaray held on to the thick cement block she was
sitting on and watched in horror as the ground in front of her began to break
apart and began crumbling towards her. “What!?”
Desaray had no choice
but to flap her small wings and get on all fours. She quickly jumped off the
wall they had built and began to run as fast as she could while flapping her
wings to try to keep herself upright. Her wings could not do much, but they did
help with balance. Behind her, all she could see was the ground falling apart,
crumbling away and creating a large chasm that was quickly widening.
◈◈◈
While Desaray was
running with her life on the line, Ricky watched helplessly as his daughter got
further and further away from him. “Mr. Harris, what do we do!? Desa is
trapped!”
“I think we are
rising!” Becky and the others all began to panic. They did not know what
exactly was happening, but it did seem to be the case that they were rising up
into the air.
“The system did say
that the landscape would change. This means….” Yu spoke up, reminding everyone
about the messages they got.
What they could not
see was that in an almost egg-like shape, the land that Ricky and the rest were
on was indeed rising into the air. It had been cut free from the ground. It was
not even moving slowly but rather quickly as it rose up into the sky.
Ricky looked down at
Desaray, who was still running, and finally yelled out: “Desa! No matter what,
stay alive! We will meet again!”
Desaray heard her
father’s voice through the rumbling behind her and turned her head to see the
land rising into the air. She skidded to a stop just a few feet from where the
ground stopped crumbling away, her eyes wide in shock. But they soon teared up,
seeing how her father and her friends were now trapped on the newly formed
floating island. “Dad!”
She did not want to
be left alone. She did not know if she could survive on her own. She had been
keeping herself going this entire time because she had others around her, but
now. Desaray’s tail slumped down, her eyes lowered as tears began to roll down
her blue-scaled cheeks. “Nooo….” Desaray suddenly spoke
up. She wiped her tears and looked at the floating island and could still see
her father looking over the edge down at her. She cupped her paws around her
mouth and yelled out: “Dad! I will find a way to get to you! So you must live
as well!”
Desaray had no idea
how she was going to get up there, but she could only hope that her next
evolution would allow her to fly. If she could, then she would fly up to the
floating island and find them.
How long it will
take, she did not know. She could only hope she could find some monsters that
were easy to kill to grind off of. Even as she was trying to tell herself that
things would be okay as long as she evolved, she still could not help but let
the tears fall. She had already been through so much, and now she would not
even know if her father and friends would be safe. She did not even know if she
would be able to survive on her own. She had enough food to last a while and a
few other things, but that did not mean she would be able to keep herself alive
for long.
On top of the
floating island, looking down at his daughter, who now looked like an ant due
to how high up they were, Ricky clenched his fists. He had to figure out a way
to get off this island and return to his daughter’s side. He would have jumped
off if the chasm below was not so big. He could not even see the bottom of it
with how deep the hole was.
“Mr. Harris…. She
will be fine.” Becky tried to reassure Ricky. Although, even she did not know
how Desaray would do on her own.
Ricky finally took
his attention away from the blue figure who had now begun walking away. “We
need to sure up our defenses. We will stay here for now. Desa will probably do
the same. She will not venture too far off unless she has to. We will secure this area and then try to find a way to get back down to
lower ground.”
Ricky knew his
daughter well and knew she would not stray too far. In fact, Desaray had been
thinking just that. She did not want to lose sight of the floating island her
father and friends were on. In the sky, there was not just one floating island,
but many that she could see on the horizon.
“First things first,
I need to mark the area and try to find a safe place.” She looked around and
felt lucky that there was still a lot of debris around her that she could build
a shelter with.
She began pulling
large pieces of concrete out of the underbrush and started building a shelter
to live in. The spot she chose was an area near the chasm that she had cleared
out. It was small, but it was a decent place to set up a temporary base.
She had to thank the
fact that she was now a dragon, and a level 10 one, since her strength had
risen by leaps and bounds. Moving the large blocks was nothing to her. By the
time noon arrived, she had already built half the structure. She just needed to
finish it up before night fell.
◈◈◈
The night was very
lonely as Desaray stared up at the ceiling of her makeshift fort. She made it
in a concealed space, but she still felt too nervous to sleep. She did not dare
start a fire at this time of night. She did not want to be seen by anyone. She
was afraid of drawing the attention of some high-level monster and then needing
to fight for her life.
Being torn from her
father with no current way of getting to where he is was not easy for her.
While now a dragon, she was still a fourteen-year-old girl. Not long ago, she
was smiling and hanging out with her friends, doing the
chores around the house while her father worked overtime. On weekends she would
cook him a nice supper and maybe even go to the mall to do some window
shopping. She was living what she considered at the time a normal everyday life
for a girl her age.
But now she was
fighting and killing monsters. She had to always be aware of her surroundings
since she never knew when she would be attacked next. If she was not careful,
she might end up being eaten alive by some monster while she slept.
That was why her mind
was on trying to find ways to level up and evolve. If she could evolve, then
she may be able to fly, and then she could fly up to the floating island and
hopefully be reunited with her father and friends once more.
Desaray did not know
when she fell asleep. She did not know if it was due to the stress of the day
or what, but when she woke up, it was already light out. She had curled up into
the far corner of her makeshift base and used her tail as a means of comforting
herself. She rubbed her eyes and slowly made her way to the base’s exit, only
to freeze when she saw the scene in front of her.
“Where did this
forest come from!?” Desaray yelled out as she quickly went outside after
recovering from her shock. She looked around and saw nothing but trees all
around her.
While stunned at the
sudden change in scenery, Desaray suddenly had a bad feeling. She ran full
speed towards the huge hole that had formed yesterday after the floating island
was formed. She could not see the sky all too well due to all the tree canopies
blocking her view. But when she reached the edge of what should have been a
massive hole and saw a huge lake there instead, she gasped in shock for a
second before lifting her head skyward.
Just thinking about
the fact that the floating island was nowhere to be seen devastated Desaray.
She was hoping to quickly level up and reunite with her family, but now…. “Is
this some kind of cruel punishment?”
She wondered if she
had offended some god somewhere and that this was retribution. She fell to her
hands and knees and looked at her reflection in the water. She hardly
recognized herself with her new body. “I will just need to search each island.
I will keep leveling up, and I will find them. No matter how long it takes.”
It was not easy for
her to build up her determination like this. She never thought she would come
across such a setback like this. She did not know how things were going to turn
out, but now that their world seemed to have undergone some sort of reset that
gave people systems, she knew her goal was to become strong. And now she had
another reason to do so.
“I will eat, then
begin the grind. I have no idea how long it will take, but I will try to reach
level 20 in a week.” The sad thing about her system was that she could not see
her experience bar. It did not tell her how much experience she had to gain per
level. She even tried to use appraisal on her menu screen and level but got no
response.
Desaray had a quick
breakfast that consisted of a single pop tart. It was not the healthiest of
foods in the world, but it was enough to keep her going. She had to conserve
her food until she understood what she could and could
not eat. So she only had a single pop tart just in case she needed to live off
them someday.
She analyzed the
water at the newly formed lake to find it was quite nourishing for the body.
She gulped a few mouthfuls down and felt a refreshing wave sweep over her body.
She felt much more awake now and even felt the energy within her grow.
“Alright, let’s go do some investigation.”
In order to not end
up dying due to her running into a bunch of monsters on accident, Desaray
decided to do some investigation. And she had just the spell she could buy that
would help in this situation. She opened her spell menu and searched for the
name. She had seen it when she roamed through the list earlier. “Found it!
Detection!”
It cost her fifteen
skill points, but the cost was worth it if it meant she could be forewarned
before something got too close. This would mean no accidentally running into a
camp of gray backs or other monsters that were dangerous. Now if they used stealth,
that might be a different story since she did not know if this skill would
actually detect stealth enemies.
[Name]: Desaray
Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 10
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 500/500
[MP]: 375/375
[Skill Points]: 15
{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)} {Toughened Skin
(Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
Chapter 9
“Whoah!” Desaray came to
what she thought was a road to find that it was now a raging river. Her current
goal at this moment was to find her old apartment, although currently, the way
things were going, it was not going to be easy.
As to why she was
going there, it was mainly to take a look. Her home and life had been ruined by
the world changes; she at least wanted to know what had now become of her old
home.
But in order to do
that, she had to figure out how to cross the river that was at least for car
lanes wide. She sat on top of a bunch of debris that was now covered in
foliage, lost in thought. “Where did all this water come from?
Desaray truly
wondered how she was supposed to cross this river. The rushing water did not
make it easy in the slightest. Sighing at the sight before her, Desaray looked
both left and right but did not see any means of crossing the river. “Did this
come off the Hudson?”
When she thought of
it like that, it would make sense for there to be water here, if a crack in the
ground was formed from here all the way to the Hudson River, then it was very
plausible. Since she was not sure which way to begin her search, Desaray hopped
off the chunk of debris she was sitting on and picked up a stick off the
ground, then stabbed it into the dirt underfoot. She then let
go of it and watched it sway back and forth before falling in front of her to
the right slightly. “Then left it is!”
With the way her luck
was, as of late, she decided it was best to do the opposite of whatever the
stick said. She had a feeling if she did not do things in this way, she would
end up in the mouth of some big monster.
She made her way down
the side of the river for quite a while until she was forced to stop when her
detection magic finally picked something up. The best thing about this spell
was that it was an activated spell. It stayed on until canceled. It also did
not cost any extra mana to keep it going, which was very nice.
Desaray quickly moved
to one of the freshly grown trees in front of her and, using her claws, climbed
to one of the branches and looked around. From there, she got a much better
view of what was around her and easily spotted what looked to be a camp of some
kind.
“Is this made by
humans?” Desaray wrinkled her brow. She was not sure what was more dangerous at
this time. Monsters or humans. If she spoke to them first, they might not
attack, but if they still attacked even after she spoke to them, she could be
in trouble.
If it was monsters,
she could try to lure one or two out and kill them one after the other to gain
experience. At this time, she wanted to keep from killing any humans just
because. Unless they were doing something bad, she preferred to refrain from
taking human lives just yet. But if they attacked her, she would not hesitate
to defend herself. She figured a fireball or her ice breath could easily take
care of them. She still had 15 skill points, but she was unwilling to spend
them just yet. She needed to know exactly what she needed to survive now.
Since she had a good
view of what she believed to be a camp, she waited for the little dots in her
detection magic to move into view. It was strange since it was kind of like a
radar. She was the little white dot in the center, and the yellow dots around
her were living beings of some kind.
She sat on her tree
branch for almost an hour until, finally, one of the dots came into view. It
was a pink-skinned humanoid. It was not human, of course, but it did walk on
two legs and even had a long, sharpened stick in its hands as it walked around,
showing it had some form of intelligence. But now Desaray was in a bit of a
dilemma. She did not know if this was someone like her or not. If this person
was once human, she did not want to attack it.
Of course, if it was
a goblin race and was once human, she would kill it since all goblins needed to
die! Mainly because she knew the goblin traits. She also knew she was taking on
some of her own race’s traits as well. Becky had so kindly pointed this out to
her. Luckily now she had an inventory, so it would not be as noticeable. As
long as she did not start chasing after shiny things, she was good.
After pondering for a
moment, Desaray decided to see what would happen if she threw a rock near the
pig-faced humanoid.
The rock arched
through the air and landed in the bushes not too far from the pig-faced
humanoid. “Who’s there!”
Desaray almost
snorted as she held back a laugh. She silently climbed down from her perch and
looked at her map to see where each of the dots were. When she saw that they
were quite far apart, she moved toward the pig-faced humanoid that was now
checking out the bush the rock was thrown into. “Ummm… Excuse me.”
“Who!?” The pig-faced
person turned to see a blue lizard standing in front of it. It quickly pointed
its wooden spear at the new being in front of it while being on high alert.
“Who are you!?”
“Before I ask, were
you once human?” Desaray asked.
“Human? What is
that?” The pig-faced humanoid seemed quite confused by Desaray’s question.
Desaray ignored it
before answering its original question. “My name is Desaray, as you can see, I
am a dragon.”
“Dragon!?” The
pig-faced humanoid face showed extreme fear. Now that it was looking at the
blue figure, it did resemble a baby dragon! It quickly lowered its spear and
knelt on the ground bowing its head: “Please do not eat me-oink! I have little
oinks to take care of!”
“Err… I did not plan
to?” Desaray was now the confused one. She could guess from its reaction that
it was definitely not a former human, but the idea that it was this terrified
of dragons meant that it must have some knowledge of what dragons were. Desaray
wondered if maybe she could get some information from
this pig race. “Can you please stand up? It is painful to look at you
prostrating yourself like this. I am hoping you can answer a few of my
questions.”
The pig-faced man
lifted its head slightly but quickly lowered it back down when it saw the evil
smirk on Desaray’s face. However, all she was doing was trying to smile. As its
butt with the curly pink tail shivered in fear, Desaray heard the pig-faced humanoid
answer: “I will do my best to answer you, so please do not eat me-oink!”
“Then…. Can you tell
me your name first, if you have one? And please stand up!” Desaray asked in a
friendly tone. She felt helpless and a little guilty for scaring the poor pig
man.
“I am Oinktera of the
pig beastkin,” Oinktera replied as it nervously crawled up from the ground. But
it still refused to raise its head.
Desaray looked
Oinktera up and down and now understood it was definitely male. “So you are a
beastkin. Can I ask how you got here?”
“This…. Miss Dragon,
I can not tell you for sure. You see, me and my clan members woke up here just
recently. We made our camp a few steps that way and have been scouting the
area-oink. The last thing I remember is going out hunting and then waking up here.”
Oinktera’s words made Desaray realize that there was no portal that had
suddenly opened, allowing things to come about. If this was the case, then
things would be much easier to understand but now….
“I see. It must be
hard suddenly appearing here out of nowhere. My world was also suddenly changed
with no warning whatsoever.” Desaray could sense the sadness from the pigman. He did not seem like a bad person. Just someone who was
tossed into an unknown world. If he was truly violent, then he would have
attacked her right on the spot.
“It has been hard. We
did not sleep at all last night in order to keep watch. Without any signs of
how we got here, to begin with, we have had no choice but to be on full alert.”
Oinktera let out a long sigh. His eyes looked very tired.
“You should rest
because I do not think you will be able to get back any time soon. If you want,
you and your friends can sleep while I keep watch. I only ask that you give me
some info on what you have scouted so far.” Desaray figured an exchange was not
a bad idea. They could sleep a few hours while she watched over them to make
sure no one tried to attack them in their sleep.
“This… I could never
ask a dragon to watch over me!” Oinktera finally lifted his head. He did not
know how he could accept such kindness from one of the ancient races.
“It’s fine. We are
doing an exchange. Your world and my world seem to have merged in some aspects.
I want to know more about your world so I can understand the monsters that have
appeared now.” Desaray explained. This time it seemed her words got through
because Oinktera finally nodded his head.
“Then, please follow
me. I will take you to our base camp.” Oinktera motioned with his hands and,
with his spear in hand, began walking back towards his camp. He did not wish to
anger the dragon by refusing any longer. Desaray could see that a few of his
comrades seemed to have returned as well.
The male pig man
yelled out with his weapon ready, only for Oinktera to raise his spear toward
the man. “Lower your weapon! Do you want the dragons to come and rain down
fiery hell upon us!?
“D-dragon!?” The
pigman quickly lowered his weapon and dropped to his knees. “Please do not eat
me! I have little oinks to take care of!”
Desaray stood there,
unsure if she should laugh or cry! She wondered if this was the phrase all the
pigmen use to try to escape calamity!
◈◈◈
After going through
the same routine one last time with the last of the pig men, Desaray had four
pig women and three pig males standing before her. Each one looked worn and
tired. “Miss Dragon, are you sure it is okay for us to rest?”
Desaray smiled and
nodded her head. “Get a few hours’ rest. It is important to rest. From what
Oinktera told me, you haven’t slept all night, so take a few hours and sleep.
It’s daytime, and I also slept all night, so there should be no problems here.”
Desaray was surprised
at the makeshift camp. They had large leaves strung up with vines to make
temporary shelters. While not as good as the one she made, it was enough to
keep out of the rain if it did rain.
“Why are you still
asking!?” Oinktera snorted as he walked over and bowed to Desaray. “Miss
Dragon, thank you for your kindness. We will take you up
on your offer. If you get hungry, feel free to eat any of us.”
Desaray did not know
what to say. Why were these pigmen begging not to be eaten one second, and the
next, they were offering themselves up? Was she some kind of evil goddess!?
Desaray sighed as she waved them off. “Just go sleep.”
The pigmen felt that
Desaray was truly a kind dragon. She was much different from the dragons of
their world. To be treated so kindly by such a god-like beast made the pig men
feel special. Each one of them fell sound asleep, not caring if they were eaten
by the dragon.
Desaray was shocked
at how quickly the group fell asleep. The men and women slept separately, which
proved they had some kind of rules within their society. “While kind of out
there on things, they do not seem any different from that of early humans.”
While the pigmen
slept, Desaray looked around the camp. She saw that they had made a fire pit
for cooking and a place to use the bathroom, which was surrounded by large
leaves strung up with vines. The only reason she knew this was a bathroom was
because of the smell. She herself did not seem to need to go to the bathroom
any longer, even though she did have the places for it. She wondered if this
was some kind of special plus of her evolution.
“I need to find out
if they have systems as well….” Desaray pursed her scaly lips. She had not
thought about it until now, but it did seem she would need to ask a lot of
questions to these pig men.
“You can sleep more,
you know.” Desaray did not mind. She was a little thankful for meeting the
pigmen as it meant she did not need to be alone at this time. Without her
father or friends around, she felt a sense of loss, and the feeling of
loneliness was starting to settle in. Even if she pushed through, she did not
know how long she would be able to keep going.
“No, I feel quite
refreshed.” Oinktera sat next to Desaray and looked at the fire.
“Oinktera, can you
tell me about your world? What it was like and how the people of your world
lived.” Desaray was quite curious as to how the pig men survived in a world
where monsters lived.
“My race was part of
a bigger kingdom. The beast kingdom was ruled by the dragons. Dragons of my
world are ancient beings and are seen as gods because their powers are the most
powerful in the world. While they kept the beast men safe, they did not hold back
when you crossed them. One could be eaten for any reason by dragons. If they
think you even looked at them wrong, you would be either burnt to ashes or
eaten on the spot. But while we had to walk on eggshells around them when they
appeared, they were also keeping us safe. The beast kingdom was one of the
safest places in the world.
“There were many
other races in our world, such as the elves, dwarves, homons, and demons. Out
of these races, there were also many sub-races as well like the orcs, ogres,
trolls, and goblins. There are way too many to count. But you can say that these races are all aligned as well, making up what we call
the dark kin. A group of races that know no laws and will kill without thought.
They raid villages of all the races, killing men and taking their women.
“They normally stayed
clear of the beast kingdom due to the dragons being very protective of what
they see as theirs. We were under their protection but, at the same time, owned
by the dragons. Even still, we all lived normal lives. Me and my kin all come
from a village on the outskirts of the beast kingdom territory. We had many
run-ins with the other races while hunting. But this was only because we
crossed the border into other domains for hunting.” Oinktera sighed softly as
if remembering something.
“As you can see, we
are not the most powerful race, so we can only run when we come in contact with
others. But if one of our kind is caught, we will fight to the death. Our world
is ruled by the strong, so showing too much weakness is basically asking to get
bullied.” Oinktera sighed once more. He stared at the flames in front of him
with a sad expression on his face.
“Your kind can not
use magic?” Desaray asked.
“No. We are unable to
wield magic. Most beast kin are unable to do so. Only the higher and ancient
races are able to use magic. These consist of Fenrir and Dragons. I do know
that the other races seem quite good at magic as well. Especially the elves and
demons.”
◈◈◈
Desaray was
surprised. She thought everyone from a magic world would be able to use magic,
but now she realized her way of thinking was wrong. “I
see. So your world was filled with different races, all with their own goals?”
“Yeah. However, the
main beast kin tribes’ women were normally sought after by the homon race.
Although I do not understand of the appeal, but I guess it is because they
looked like the homons except for the tail and ears.” Oinktera could not find
himself to be attracted to such creatures. They were nothing like his pigkin
girls.
Desaray smiled at
this. She understood the appeal was definitely that. But now was not the time
to be discussing such things. Instead, she asked: “Oinktera, did your world
have a system?”
“A system?” Oinktera
thought for a moment before waving his hand, and a blue transparent screen
appeared. “You mean this?”
“Yeah.” Desaray
nodded, she was a little happy when she saw that Oinktera also had a system.
She wondered if she could get a bit more information about them. But when she
looked at the screen and saw that Oinktera was only level 2, she did not know
what to make of that. “Oinktera…. Did you not level up?”
“Huh? Why would I do
something so dangerous!?” Oinktera oinked a few times. He looked at Desaray
with fear in his eyes. “To level up would mean to fight those monsters. We only
fought the normal animals when hunting. I only leveled up once because I was forced
to help kill a goblin. Other than that, I would never go near those monsters.
It would mean losing my life.”
“I see….” Desaray
looked at his skill list and saw that it was all filled with farming and
hunting skills. Stuff that he was probably born with, but each one was quite
close to max level, which was impressive in its own way.
“Well… No… Some of
the beast kin do level up, but those are the exceptions since they can use
magic even without being a higher race. There are around a thousand or so beast
kin, from what I heard, who can use magic and are able to level up, but most of
them work for the nobles and dragons.” Oinktera replied.
“I am not sure you
realize this, but even you could use magic if you put your points into the
skill. You have a skill window, do you not?” Desaray saw that Oinktera had the
ability to use skill points which meant he could level up and even evolve if he
were to start leveling up.
“We are too weak.
Even a single goblin takes four of us.” Oinktera lowered his head. He felt
slightly ashamed that he was so weak.
“I do not think you
are weak, just that you are putting yourself into a mindset that makes you
think you are weak. A goblin is not all that strong alone. If you only need to
fight one, you just have to be quick in your actions since they act on
instinct. They have some brains that allow them to use weapons, but if you are
careful, you can easily kill one or two.” Desaray did not think Oinktera should
give up. If he leveled up, he might even become someone very powerful in the
future.
“I see…” Oinktera
fell into thought. His people had always been taught not to fight the monsters.
So he had always had the mindset of not fighting them because he was weak. But
that day, when they fought the goblin and killed it, he realized that it was no
normal goblin but an evolved one, a hobgoblin. “You may be right. Now that I am
thinking back on this. The goblin we killed was an
evolved goblin. While we did lose a few people, we did kill the hobgoblin in
the end, and the experience was spread between all of us. If it was a normal
goblin…..”
“See. While you might
get injured, you can not be afraid. You have to at least try to level up and
grow stronger. Especially now that you and your kin are on your own.” Desaray
knew that even she had to be careful when fighting. She might be at an advantage,
but if she was forced to fight twenty or so goblins, she might just die. “What
you should do is get appraisal. Then a magic spell. You only need to level up
two times. I noticed you spent all your points on farming skills. Is there a
reason for that?”
“My system may be
different, look at my skill list.” Oinktera had a troubled expression as he
opened up his skill list. In fact, it was far different from Desaray’s skill
list. It had many crafting and daily life skills but nothing that looked like
magic. But it did have two skills she knew well. “Start off with these two.”
“Appraisal and first
aid?” Oinktera looked at Desaray questioningly.
“Appraisal is
essential in figuring out if you can win against an opponent. First aid, while
not the strongest of healing magic, will at least heal minor wounds. And it is
magic. This would mean you are not magicless. You might even gain the ability
to use other magic when you evolve. The same goes for the others of your race.”
Desaray explained.
Oinktera’s eyes
widened. He had never thought he would be able to use magic. He had looked at
the skill before but never thought too much of it. He thought first aid would
just allow him to patch up wounds easier, not that it was actually magic. Hope
filled his eyes. If what she said was true, then he might just be able to level
up and even use magic in the future. Oinktera suddenly
stood up and then knelt down with his forehead pressed into the dirt. “Thank
you for allowing me to see a path that I never thought would be possible!”
◈◈◈
A few hours later,
the pig men were all running around building new shelters. Desaray had talked
with Oinktera for quite a while and decided she would stick around for a bit as
she explored the area. She figured safety in numbers was a good idea, especially
in a world that has changed and is now filled with monsters. She had no idea
what she might run into.
But she refused to
live under a leaf. While it was a good temporary shelter, long term, it was not
very safe. So she began building a new hut with the rubble that was all over
the place. The pigmen saw this and immediately took the job from her and began
building her a new house to live in.
So now Desaray was
looking at the radar on her screen that made up her detection magic. “There are
a few monsters not far from here…..” One thing that Desaray realized was that
while she was the white dot, the pig men were yellow dots, but the dots on her
radar that did not belong to her or the pig men were red. She came to the
conclusion that yellow meant NPC and red meant enemy. Of course, she did not
know for sure yet. She still had to go and check it out on her own.
“Oinktera, come with
me.” Since Oinktera wanted to level as well, she would try to help him out. She
sent him a team invite which he quickly joined. She could now see his name and
his HP and MP bars in the right corner of her peripheral vision.
“There are a few red
dots in my detection magic. We will go check them out. If we can fight them, we
will. If not, we will slowly back off and hope we are not detected. But listen.
If we do get detected and the monster is too high a level for all of us to deal
with, we will run in the opposite direction of the base. We do not want to lead
enemies back to our base if they are too strong.” Desaray wanted to make sure
this point was clear. Never lead an enemy home. Unless you know for a fact
that, that enemy will die if you gang up on it with more people.
“Understood.”
Oinktera nodded his head. He was very nervous but he knew this was his chance
to finally start his rise. He would be the first of the pigmen to evolve and
use magic!
Desaray, with
Oinktera following after her, slowly and cautiously made their way toward the
first red dot. She had no idea what kind of monster this was, so she could only
hope that it was either a lower level than herself or at least not higher than
level twelve.
When they got to a
line of thick bushes, the two crawled into them to use them as cover. What they
saw was a large bear with long fangs and spikes on its back. “Appraisal….”
[Spiked Back Bear]
[Level]: 8
[HP]: 200/200
[MP]: 20/20
“We should retreat…”
Oinktera was shaking. He did not wish to fight a spiked back bear!
Not caring for the
shaking pigman, Desaray slipped out of the bush and stuck her claw out towards
it. “Fireball!”
The fireball shot
forward and slammed into the rear of the spiked back bear, who was caught
unaware. It roared out in pain as its fur caught on fire. “Roar!!!”
With her claws at the
ready, Desaray charged forward. She was also keeping a side eye on the
detection magic radar to see if anything was charging over. She wanted to
finish this fight before anything was attracted to what was going on here.
Oinktera had no
choice but to rush out of the bush with his wooden spear. He did not dare sit
idle while Desaray did all the work. He did not wish to be eaten! “Take
this-oink!”
Oinktera stabbed his
wooden spear into the spiked back bear’s side before quickly pulling it out and
retreating. While he did not wish to fight such a high-level monster, he was
not inexperienced in fighting. After all, his hunting skills were almost maxed
out.
The spiked back bear
roared out in pain once more and tried to swipe its claw at Oinktera, but it
was too slow and was unable to hit its target and instead ended up losing an
eye.
Desaray had used the
chance when the spiked back bear was distracted to jump up on its head and stab
her claws into its left eye. She wanted to blind it to make it hard for it to
attack them. She quickly jumped down and yelled out:
“Oinktera, attack its left. I will get rid of its other eye!”
She could see that
the spiked back bear’s health was quickly dropping. It was now at 250 HP. She
had to admit that the defense of this bear was quite high. She figured that
while Oinktera could hurt it, it was not enough to cause substantial damage.
But safety comes first. If she could blind the monster in front of her, she
could slip under its stomach and try to gouge out its heart. While it might be
messy, it was the cleanest way to kill it. Otherwise, she would need to shove
her hand up its but and cast a fireball. She did not wish to do this….
She could use Ice
Arrow, but she had not practiced with it enough to have decent aim. This fight
was making her realize she was not ready for hard combat yet. Monsters like
this were fine, but in the end, it would rely on her own ability to understand
and control her spells if she wanted to survive in this new world. She needed
to practice and master her own spells so that when higher-level enemies came,
she would have a better chance of winning.
Chapter 10
“Both eyes are out, keep
stabbing it with your spear from different sides!” Desaray was looking for an
opening right now to finish off the spiked back bear. Currently, it was
thrashing around now that it was blinded making it hard to slip underneath it.
“On it” Oinktera
charged forward. With his hunting skill, he was easily able to dodge the
attacks from the spiked back bear. He rushed in, stabbed it with his spear,
then jumped back before he was attacked. These kinds of hit-and-run tactics
were easily chipping away at the now blinded spiked back bear.
After Oinktera went
in a few times, he finally got rid of his nervousness and was really showing
off his abilities. Desaray was quite shocked at how well he was doing. But she
did not just allow him to take all the glory. She waited for the right moment before
yelling out: “Oinktera, back off!”
Oinktera quickly
jumped back. He watched as an icey cold breath came out of Desaray’s mouth,
smashing into the spiked back bear who was now slowly freezing up. The spiked
back bear’s movements began to slow just enough for Desaray to rush in and
slide across the icy ground. She waited for the moment she was right underneath
the spiked back bear and stabbed her claws out, piercing through the spiked
back bear’s thinner hide of its underbelly and piercing into its heart. She did
not know why, but she could feel that the spot she was aiming for was where the heart was. Almost like a form of instinct, she
could just tell where it was located.
Blood splattered on
the ground splashing all over Desaray, but she did not care as she let out a
roar and ripped the heart out of the spiked back bear’s chest. She quickly got
out from under the spiked back bear’s body as it crashed to the ground.
[You Defeated A
Spiked Back Bear]
[Experience Points
Gained….]
Sadly she did not
level up. But at least she got some experience. She looked at Oinktera’s avatar
in the corner of her peripheral vision and smiled. “Not bad, two levels!”
“I actually leveled
up! I got two levels!” Oinktera was ecstatic. He never thought he would ever
reach beyond his current level but now… “Miss Dragon, thank you so much!”
“Oinktera, just call
me Desa, short for Desaray. No need for the whole miss dragon thing.” Desaray
felt weird being called miss dragon. “But from now on, we will need to work on
leveling up more. And by we, I also mean the rest of your kin. We all need to
level up and get to higher levels and evolve. This new world is strange to both
of us, so we have to work together.”
Desaray decided. She
would help the other pigmen level up and level alongside them as they expand
their reach into the areas around them and level up at the same time. They
could form a team and take on higher-level monsters. But first, they all had to
be ready.
“Me and my kin will
follow your orders.” Oinktera suddenly knelt down and bowed his head. It was
like a knight giving an oath. Desaray scratched her head. She did not know what
to make of this.
This was beyond her
expectations, but it also made things much easier for her. The two returned to
camp to find three huts made of concrete rubble that had already been built.
“They were quick.”
She was actually
quite surprised at the speed and craftsmanship these pigmen had. To be able to
quickly build so many huts made of rubble to the point that they looked almost
perfect was surprising indeed.
“Oinktora and
Oinktura both had building skills at max. They were my village’s main builders.
So these kinds of simple huts are nothing. In the future they will build a much
bigger home for Lady Desa.”
Desaray froze and
looked at Oinktera. He went from calling her Miss Dragon to Lady Desa!? “You do
not need to call me lady….”
“Lady Desa, I can not
comply calling a sacred beast like yourself without any kind of honorific. It
would not sit right with me. So please allow me to call you Lady Desa.”
Oinktera did not seem like he planned to budge anytime soon.
Desaray could only
sigh and nod. “Alright, suit yourself.” It was at least better than Miss
Dragon. Desaray thought. “Anyway, we should cook up some of this spiked bear
meat and celebrate our first successful hunt and your level advancement!”
Desaray smiled as she
said: “It will not just be him either. All of you will be able to level up
soon. We are going to go over a plan on how to achieve this in the next few
days. We will slowly expand our influence in the area outward and map it out.
This way, we can see what kinds of monsters are out there, if there are any
dungeons, and if there are any others like you out there as well.”
◈◈◈
While Desaray was
setting up a base camp, up on the floating island, Ricky was tearing his hair
out. “Uncle Ricky, you should not worry too much. I am sure Desa is doing
fine.”
“Becky, I know she is
probably doing okay, but that is only a big what if. That girl…. I can’t help
but worry for her.” Ricky sighed. That was his daughter. Of course, he would be
worried about her. After letting out a long sigh, Ricky asked: “How is the
perimeter?”
Becky had only tried
to calm Ricky down, but she too was very much worried about her best friend.
She had no idea how it must feel to be on her own right now. The floating
island they were on had moved many miles while they were asleep, and now they
had no idea where Desaray was anymore or if she was okay. She was very worried.
But she also knew that they had work to do here. This island they were on was
not safe in the slightest. “The ogres seem to be keeping their distance after
the last scrimmage. However, Mike ended up taking a hit straight on. Luckily
first aid was enough to heal him. But we can not keep
going on like this. If they send anything over level 8, we might not be able to
hold our ground.”
“Alright, just keep
an eye on their movements and keep practicing your skills. As long as we are
always on alert with the current fort we have built, we should be able to hold
out for a while. But we can not just keep sitting here, either. Out of all of us,
Becky, you are the only one with wings. If you can evolve and fly down to the
lands below, we may be able to find Desaray.” Ricky knew it was wishful
thinking, but he still had to try. If he could at least know his daughter’s
current situation, he would be able to relax a bit.
“I will relay your
orders.” Becky tried to lighten the mood a bit by saluting, but she only got a
dry chuckle from Ricky, who shook his head.
Becky quickly met up
with Yu and Mike, who were on watch. “Becky, how is he?” Yu asked. She was also
concerned about Ricky and Desaray.
“I don’t know. I
think he is ready to jump to the ground below, but that would most certainly be
death for him. He has not slept at all either since we woke up to find the
island had moved. I am afraid he will end up sick or end up killing himself
from trying to get to the ground below. He is currently seeing me as his only
chance to find out Desaray’s current situation. If only we teamed up before we
were separated….” Becky regretted not teaming up with Desaray as soon as the
function became available.
“We can only pray
that she is fine. But we also have to worry about our own safety at this time.”
Mike was not trying to be mean, but their current situation was not all that
good either. Ogres had appeared out of nowhere and attacked them when they were trying to figure things out. While they were able
to push them back and even kill a few, they were currently in a kind of
stalemate. The only thing they had going for them was that these ogres did not
seem to be able to use magic.
“I know. And he also
knows. He told us to keep an eye on things. Mike, you keep watching while Yu
and I practice. We need to master our skills.” Becky and Yu had been sparing
off and on. They did not care about injuries since they could be healed. They just
wanted to learn how to use their skill in combat so that they would not lose to
a monster. One wrong step meant death for them.
◈◈◈
Back on the ground,
Desaray was currently staring at her stats. “I have 15 skill points…. If I use
4 to level up ice breath and appraisal… Should I then use another two and up
ice arrow? If I can get good at it, I can stay within my element…. ”
She had noticed that
ice arrow’s damage had a (12) points next to it. She was not sure why this was,
but when she looked at fireball, it did not have such an effect. This was why
she was picking appraisal first over the spell since she wanted to see if her
appraisal skill would give her additional information.
Desaray pondered for
quite a while before finally dishing out four of her points. “Appraisal!”
Desaray did not hesitate to use appraisal after leveling it up on her menu.
Luckily her guess paid off, and she did not waste any skill points.
[Ice Arrow(Lvl 1)]
[Damage]: 10-20 (+12)
[Details]: Damages a
single enemy with the ice element. Has a chance to penetrate the first target
into another based on the first target’s defense. Damage
increased due to Elemental Affinity.
“So that is what that
is….” Desaray used appraisal on her status window as well and found a new line
had appeared.
[Name]: Desaray
Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 10
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 500/500
[MP]: 375/375
[Elemental Affinity]:
Ice
[Skill Points]: 11
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)} {Toughened Skin
(Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
“Since that is the
case, I will up Ice Arrow as well.” Desaray quickly used another two points to
up ice arrow.
[Ice Arrow(Lvl 2)]
[Damage]: 20-40 (+22)
[Details]: Damages a
single enemy with the ice element. Has a chance to penetrate the first target
into another based on the first target’s defense. Damage
increased due to Elemental Affinity.
◈◈◈
After upping ice
arrow, Desaray looked at her other skills and pondered once more. “Since I have
9 skill points left, I might as well go ahead and up first aid and toughened
skin as well.”
With that, Desaray
only had 6 skill points left. What she did notice was that while level 1 to
level 2 in her skills was relatively cheap, level 2 to level 3 was not. It
costs 10 skill points to get to level 3. The only good thing was that, for the
time being, it seemed to be a flat rate for all her skills. “With 6 points
left… is there anything worth buying?”
Desaray flipped
through her skills list until she finally came upon something she had not seen
before. “Weapon crafting?” She tilted her head to the side and wondered when
this had always been on her list. She looked a little more and saw a few more
profession-type skills she could get. All of which were one skill point to get.
“Let’s see… Weapon
crafting, armor crafting, jewel crafting, alchemy, rune engraving, foraging,
hunting, and cooking. It’s like I am playing some kind of MMO….” Desaray
thought for a moment before finally deciding to take a bit more in-depth look
into these skills and see what she would need.
For weapon crafting
and armor crafting, she could easily do without any real tools. Even the
starting portion of the weapon crafting was basic things like a wooden spear
and an axe and knife made of stone. The armor crafting only needed animal hides
and thread made of grass or thin vines. As for jewel
crafting, alchemy, and rune engraving, things were a bit different.
Each one needed
things from different professions. Jewel crafting needed tools made from weapon
crafting. While these were tools, they could only be made through the forging
of metal, which Desaray did not have the ability to do as of yet. Alchemy
needed things from foraging, jewel crafting, and weapon crafting. Rune
engraving needed things from both jewel crafting and alchemy. But one thing she
did note was that the jewel crafting actually gave her quite a bit of boosts to
her stats based on what she crafted and wore. So once she was in a better
state, she would definitely need to think about getting these profession
skills.
In the end, Desaray
went with armor crafting, weapon crafting, foraging, hunting, and cooking. This
left her with 1 skill point to sit on until the next time she leveled up. “Oh?
It seems that these are split from basic skills.”
When Desaray looked
at her status window, she noticed a new section had been added after she took
the new skills.
[Name]: Desaray
Harris
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 10
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 500/500
[MP]: 375/375
[Elemental Affinity]:
Ice
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl 2)} {Toughened
Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon Crafting (Lvl
1)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 1)} {Hunting (Lvl 1)} {Foraging (Lvl 1)} {Cooking (Lvl 1)}
Hunting was a useful
skill since it came with hidden bonuses such as stepping lightly to not be
heard, better vision, and hearing as the skill levels up. They would be handy
for her later on as she fought stronger monsters. Weapon crafting also had a
hidden bonus which boosted her strength a bit. Armor crafting boosted her
dexterity. Foraging heightened her sense of smell and eyes. Cooking heightened
her sense of smell and taste.
She did not think
that by taking these professions that she would end up getting so many bonuses.
These were subtle changes, but she was sure as the skills grew, they would help
her even in battle. She saw how Oinktera fought. He had keen senses in battle,
and even though he was inexperienced, he did well against a monster of a way
higher level.
With her new skill
set, Desaray began her training. She had to perfect her current skills so she
could easily use them in battle. While she was doing that, she also started
crafting simple stone weapons. Her first creation was a stone dagger. She
wanted some kind of weapon she could have on her just in case. Even if her
claws were very sharp, she wanted to have a throwaway backup
weapon as well. Sometimes she would not be able to fight with her claws, so a
weapon was mandatory.
Something she did
learn was that crafting skills had their own experience bars meaning they could
level up without needing to use skill points. She now understood why Oinktera
had his skills almost maxed out for hunting. It was because he had to do it on
a daily basis, and this allowed his skills to level up on their own. Although,
she also did not see a method of leveling up a profession with skill points
either.
“I guess you can only
level it up by actually using the skill. Luckily the crafting process is
semi-automated.” It did not come with a crafting window or anything like that.
But it did instill her body with the motions and knowledge needed to make each
thing. Even if she had never made one before, she instinctively knew how to,
allowing her to craft as she pleased.
◈◈◈
Desaray sat at the
campfire in front of her with a hard stone lying on the ground at her side and
another dagger-shaped stone in her hand. She was currently inspecting the edge
of the stone she had just sharpened.
“That is?” Oinktera
walked over and asked.
“This is a stone
dagger blade. I am finishing the blade first before I fix it to a hilt. I will
upgrade your spears later to stone spears. It will make hunting and xp farming
easier later.” Desaray did not turn her head as she answered. She was actually quite
engrossed in her crafting. “Oh, right, when I go to make armor, I will need to
take your measurements later. All of us need armor, even if it is only the hide
of another monster.”
“We can even get armor!?”
Oinktera opened his eyes wide, he never expected Desaray to go that far!
“Mmm…. Armor is
important to keeping you and myself safe. It is a necessity. As long as you all
work hard, I will do my best to help you progress.” Desaray felt she was quite
close to level 11 now. She did not know exactly how much, but she did know that
it would not take too long before she reached it. She wanted to keep getting
stronger and stronger. Each level was another step toward her goal.
After finishing the
stone blade, Desaray began her woodworking. She was actually using the freshly
made blade to carve the hilt. It did not take long to get it done and smoothed
out. With a bit of thin vine, she wrapped it around the hilt to lock the blade
into it. Only then did she start sharpening the blade once more.
With her dagger done,
she began working on spearheads. It was no different from a knife, so it went
smoothly. She made twelve in total. She found by her sixth spear, her weapon
crafting even leveled up and gave way to bronze weapons. Although she had no idea
where she was going to find copper and tin ore, but the information on how to
make them was now in her mind. She also got information on how to make a stone
pickaxe which gave her the hint that she could farm it somehow.
“Alright. I will
start on your armor.” Desaray did not expect to have gotten the spears done so
quickly, so she now had time to work on their armor. She planned to make her
set first, which was going to be the hardest, so she had Oinkyera and Oinktira
help her with measurements. Once the measurements were done, she could begin
cutting out the shirt and coat she planned to make. The
only issue was her tail. But the designs in her head were telling her it was
not too hard to do.
It got too late, so
Desaray was forced to finish her armor the next day. But she found that these
skills were already overly helpful at this time. When she was done, she laid
out all her newly created items in front of her. “Appraisal!”
[Stone Dagger]
[Damage]: 20
[Basic stone dagger. May
break after too many uses or hitting a solid surface.]
[Rough Leather Coat]
[Protection]: 10
[A leather coat made of
monster hide]
[Rough Leather Pants
(Beast-kin)]
[Protection]: 8
[Leather pants made of
monster hide]
Seeing that her new
items even came with stats, she was slightly happy since she could find out how
much they were going to help. She did not know how good the protection values
were, but she figured they were only minor since they were low-quality goods.
Well, she did not know if they were low quality or not since she did not know
what higher quality goods looked like.
After she finished
her own armor, she put it on and found it really easier to wear. The only thing
that was a little hard to put on was the leather pants. But she made them
easier to deal with after a minor adjustment. She made a button out of wood,
and with some thin vine, she sewed it on and then made a slit and another hole
for the button to slip into. This made putting her pants on much easier since
she could just button them up instead of trying to slide
her tail through a hole. As for the coat, it was not as hard. The wings section
was cut out in a V, and the back of the coat only slipped up from the bottom
and buttoned up in the front.
Everything was made
to fit her body so that it would not obstruct anything. She thought wearing
clothes would feel weird with her new body, but she actually felt quite
comfortable. At least now she looked less like a monster and more like a beast
kin.
She quickly got to
work on the pigmen’s clothes, doing the females first. They only needed a
button for the back of their pants, and that was it. Other than that, they
needed no other special adjustments. She had finished all the female clothing
by midday. It was then that she began doing the male pignmen’s clothes. This
took until nightfall, but it did up her skill enough to know how to make bronze
armor. It even gave her a new weapon crafting skill to make a hammer for
forging.
The only issue with
armor was the forge. It would be a while before she could make such a thing.
But with new weapons and armor done, she knew tomorrow would be a new day. So
while they all sat around the fire eating dinner, Desaray stood up and clapped her
hands. “Okay, starting tomorrow, we will start hunting and leveling! We all
need to evolve, so we will strive to hit level twenty and then meet the
requirements for evolution. We will start small so we can all get used to our
skills and fighting styles. We will then work our way up from there.”
◈◈◈
Five days later,
Desaray was happily looking at her new levels. Not only did her main level
increase, but also her professions that she had not gotten to level two went up
as well.
[Race]: Ice Dragling
[Age]: 14
[Level]: 11
[Monster Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites
[HP]: 570/570
[MP]: 420/420
[Elemental Affinity]:
Ice
[Skill Points]: 6
[Skills]
{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)}
{Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl 2)} {Toughened
Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow
(Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon Crafting (Lvl
2)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Hunting (Lvl 2)} {Foraging (Lvl 2)} {Cooking (Lvl 2)}
One thing she had
learned the past few days was that her Ice Arrow was much easier to use than
her Fireball. Even though Fireball was at level 1, it was still not as easy for
her to cast. This showed that there seemed to be a bit of a learning curve when
it came to affinity. Why this was, she did not know, but she was more than
happy to use her Ice Arrow.
She found she could
hit targets almost perfectly between the eyes from far distances. This allowed
her to fight from afar without worrying about being in
too much danger. Although she knew it would not be proper training if she did
things like this the entire time. This was why she also trained without using
magic as well. Luckily all the monsters are of a lower level. Oinktera was now
level 7, and his friends had reached level 6.
This was a huge boost
over the past few days, but Desaray noticed that once you reach the level 5
mark, leveling starts to become slower. Within the past five days, it took her
a while to level up one level. Oinktera hit level five quickly, but it took four
days just to hit level seven.
But during this time,
they were not just sitting around. Desaray’s inventory was filled with plants
and herbs that could be used for alchemy. As well as more hide from monsters.
She even found tin ore. Which she found was actually easy to find. It looked
like an ore node one would see in a video game, further cementing that some
higher power was at play and messing with them.
“Boss, we have mapped
out the whole area for a few miles. Should we explore that crevice we found?”
Oinktera asked. In the past five days, he and his kin had started calling her
boss.
“Yeah, we will rest
up today and celebrate our progress thus far. All of you have risen in level
and have grown stronger. But remember not to let your guard down. At any moment
and time, we could die with a single misstep.” Desaray replied as she threw some
wood on the fire. She was preparing to make some barbecue monster meat. She had
found that she felt stronger after eating monster meat. She did not know why
this was, but she did.
It was not by much.
Only a slight increase, but it was noticeable after eating a few days of
monster meat. She just wished she could see her normal
stats. It was nothing like the increase she got from leveling up.
After a night of
stuffing themselves and sleeping peacefully, Desaray and the pigmen headed out
towards the crevice. They had been keeping track of the area by making a map
using a notebook Desaray had and a pen. It came in handy since they used the
camp as the center point and then slowly drew things out from there. Any point
on the map that was marked was a point of interest or a meeting point. A circle
meant a meeting point, and a point of interest was marked with a star. There
were only two stars on the map at this time, and they were heading to one of
them now.
When they arrived,
the crevice was made up of part of the landscape that seemed to have risen at
some point. Even the building that was there had been engulfed by the cliffs
now jutting out of the earth. Desaray readied her stone dagger as she said:
“Okay, everyone, stay on guard.”
Oinktera and the
others all nodded and slowly began to follow Desaray. The passage was narrow,
but it was still wide enough for them to walk down single file. The landscape
turned from a lush green forest to a rock, one with nothing but brown grass
patches here and there on the dirt ground.
The change was a bit
too drastic. Desaray had a feeling they were about to uncover something they
did not expect here or walk right into some kind of boss monster. But even if
they did, that did not mean Desaray was about to back down unless she knew for
a fact they could not win.
Risks also come with
rewards. If one did not risk their lives, they would not gain anything in
return. They walked the narrow path for almost twenty minutes until, finally,
it opened up. It was a half-circle area, but on the far
side, against the steep cliff, vines hung down from above and fell over a large
opening in the wall of the cliff side. “A dungeon!”
Ointera was the first to speak. But when he spoke, his voice cracked as he trembled in fear. Even the other pigmen were the same. Dungeons were not like regular monsters. The monsters inside were stronger and much more vicious. “Boss, we should leave this….” Oinktera could not even finish his words because when he looked at Desaray, her eyes were shining with excitement.
