Origin A.R.S. (6 page)

Unable to do anything but desperately flee, he was surprised by the sudden appearance of a familiar town guard. The guard leapt in front of Scott and roared out an impressive shout that echoed throughout the countryside. The sorcerer fell back onto his ass, and the rats were bowled over as well.

<<< You have been stricken with a feeling of absolute terror! >>>

<<< You are stunned and paralyzed with fear for thirty seconds. >>>

Scott’s body was already in panic mode, but now his mind threatened to shut down due to the unholy fear assaulting his mind.

The guard put his hand on Scott’s shoulder and exclaimed, “Courage, lad!”

A vibrant red light flared outward from the man’s hand to encompass Scott completely. The fear effect was washed away and he could literally feel his health and mana being restored.

“Can you stand? If so, finish these rats off before they can get their bearings!”

Scott took a quick breath then leapt to his feet. The rats were tightly packed in a sick display of solidarity. Most were lying on their back with their feet up in the air while their little paws clutched feebly at nothing.

“Freeze!” shouted Scott. He unleashed his magical attack twice in succession, easily killing most of the rats. A few were just outside the range of the spell so he rushed forward and cast it once more. He finished up the rats that were left by using a few swift kicks and downward stomps to their helpless rodent bodies.

“Back to the road, lad. Do it quickly, and take that damned skirt off!” barked the guard.

Scott quickly complied. Now that he had time to think, he realized exactly what the blasphemy from before had to be. The rats did not like it when he had put on that skirt.

“Ye, fool. What were you thinking wearing that thing out in the grasslands?”

Scott shook his head. “I didn’t know it would cause the rats to go crazy.”

The older man sighed. “Yes, I guess it can’t be helped. You aren’t from around here. You’re lucky that I was heading home for the day, though.”

“Don’t I know it! Thank you!”

The guard laughed. “It’s fine. Though, you should be careful. It’s bad enough that you did something so foolish, but to bring a score of aggressive beasts right to the road to town? That’s a pretty serious crime, you know.”

“Shit!” exclaimed Scott. Was he going to be arrested?

The man laughed at the sorcerer. “Don’t be too worried about it. If I had not known that you were new to the area I’d haul you in for this, but I’ll let it go this time.”

“Thank you. I am sorry to be so much trouble.”

The guard laughed again. “It’s fine. In the future though, you should remember that even if you don’t get someone hurt by dragging monsters to the road there’s a pretty hefty fine.”

“How hefty?”

“Hmm, well... grass rats are pretty weak. Given the number you would have probably owed around two or three thousand Fayth, about ten times that amount if they had actually injured someone.”

“Yeesh! I’ll keep that in mind.”

“It’s not a problem if you need the help and no one gets hurt. The fine is to keep random hunters and adventurers from dragging the town guard into dealing with their messes. Consider the fine as payment for services rendered by the town.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good, good. I’d avoid the grasslands for a while. The rats don’t forgive easily.”

Scott sighed. “Great. I need to find some rabbits for a job I took on.”

The guard looked at Scott curiously. “If you want rabbits, why are you hunting rats?”

“There aren’t any rabbits in the grassland?”

“No, not around here. The rats run anything else out if they can. Try the fields to the south, or the woods down the road apiece.”

Scott considered his suggestion. He had run across two rabbits on the road while coming to town. They would probably be somewhat common in the woods. “OK, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Also, a bit of advice. Go eat something before heading out. You look like death warmed over.”

The sorcerer nodded at that. His wounds had been healed by the power of courage, but he was still shaking. That had been an incredibly close call. He would have to pay more attention to things in the future. 

After parting ways with his savior, Scott decided to check the results of the battle.

He had been forced to ignore the various status windows, so he had lost out on learning what he had gained from the fight. However, he could guess by checking his status and inventory.

He had gained three more of those supposedly rare grass skirts. There were around twenty-one rat pelts, twenty-four rat tails, and three rat eyes. He also had a single rat fang. All told, he had earned thirty-two Fayth as well.

“As insanely dangerous as that was, I earned more in the last few minutes than I normally earned in a day of package delivery.”

He checked his status:

<<>>

Name:
Scott Jacobs |
Class:
Sorcerer |
Race:
Human

Age:
18 |
Level:
2

EXP:
45

Next Level:
15

Ability Points:
42

Health:
13[13] |
Mana:
18[34]

Attack:
6[30] |
Defense:
5[21]

Strength:
6[6] |
Agility:
4[4] |
Accuracy:
5[5]

Intellect:
12[12] |
Luck:
6[6]

<<<*>>>

Scott was absurdly pleased with the outcome. While his health and mana had not increased much, his attack and defense had increased greatly. At this rate, he would be beyond the power of those grass rats sometime soon. He idly wondered if his defense could become strong enough to completely ignore enemy attacks.

The unarmed combat skill drastically improved his attack and defense. If he had tried to fight an opponent without a weapon, and without the skill boost, he would only be able to use his base attack and defense. Of course, the trade-off was the fact that knuckle and boot weapons were the weakest classes of weapons.

Claw weapons were rated to be similar to daggers, though. They were still low-end damage dealers, and the shortest threat range among all weapons, but with training an unarmed fighter could easily be on the same level as a swordsman or other weapon wielder. An unarmed fighter might even have higher attack and defense than an equivalent weapon wielder if they developed great strength and agility.

Scott remembered what Mid had said about awakening his skill tree at level two. He checked his skill menu and noticed that his two skills had the word ‘Upgrade’ next to them now. He was eager to check that out, but opted to return to town first. The grassland still gave off an ominous vibe and he did not want to get caught unaware by another rat horde.

He jogged back to town as quickly as he could. Neerdles was on the south-side of town, in a low-rent district. The place seemed nice enough, but Scott did not appreciate the fact that he had to share a room with thirty or so other men. Instead of heading to the inn, he opted to find a nice empty corner of town near the wall.

Scott willed his skill menu open then clicked on the sorcery upgrade option. A screen opened up showing him one option and several grey colored lines extending outward from it only to disappear into darkness. The one available option was, ‘Skill-Up.’

“Ten ability points? Hmm...” He closed the sorcery menu and opened the unarmed combat menu. His option was almost exactly the same in that skill as well. The only difference was the way that the grey lines were arranged before they went off into the darkness.

Both skills required him to expend ten ability points to perform a skill-up, whatever that meant. “Might as well try it.”

He clicked on skill-up and a window popped up asking if he was sure that he wanted to select the skill-up option. He clicked, ‘Yes.’

<<< Congratulations! >>>

Your unarmed combat mastery has been upgraded! You have mastered the basics of unarmed combat!

Your attack and defense will increase by five points when you fight unarmed.

Your attack, defense, hit points, strength, agility, and accuracy will now have an additional permanent +1 level-up modifier.

You are now capable of developing your physical traits.

<<<*>>>

“Now that’s what daddy’s talking about!” Scott felt an absurd joy race through his body. Level-up modifiers for stats meant that he would always gain at least that many points for those stats when he gained a level! There was a chance, however slight, that he might have gotten no increased stats in some attributes when he leveled up before.

He checked the unarmed combat skill selection once more then grinned. The grey colored lines had turned bright yellow. There were several option boxes available now. He could upgrade his attributes using ability points; even add in another modifier for his level. “Hmm, no special abilities, huh?”

The new boxes had lines leading away from them that probably led to other interesting abilities or skills. He would probably have to activate those options first if he wanted to increase his abilities further.

“Better do a skill-up for sorcery before anything else.” He could earn more ability points, but he did not want to risk his level-up bonus by not activating those first!

After clicking on the skill-up option for sorcery he was given a similar bonus for his intelligence and mana that he had gained for his other stats with unarmed combat. He also had the ability to upgrade those stats and to develop his spells.

“Interesting, I only have four attribute increasing options, but I have a several spells that I can learn.” His three current spells were shown, but they were greyed out. He checked the information for them and learned that he could upgrade those spells after he had reinforced them four times. Once he had mastered the spell, he could improve it. That was good news.

“This is cool, but so weird. I don’t know if this world is real or a game, but it is definitely fun.” In a modern game he would probably have skill levels and need to use a skill a billion times to increase it by a small margin. This old school system allowed him to fight whatever he wanted to improve himself by will alone.

He rubbed his chin. He had twenty-two points left. Each of the new spells on the first-tier required forty ability points. He could not learn them. He could increase his mana or intelligence but at the moment he preferred to shore up his weakness. Scott returned to the unarmed combat screen.

“Let’s see what we get...” He clicked on the upgrade for his health and then confirmed the action. Ten ability points disappeared from his life and his health increased by five points. The option remained available, but now it would cost twenty-five points to upgrade it again.

So, that was how it worked. He could directly upgrade his stats, but they would require more ability points each time. That little nugget of detail about this world might prove to be quite tedious unless he could gain more than one point per opponent. He could not upgrade his health again at the moment, but he could upgrade his agility. Increasing that attribute through the option only raised it by one point. However, his defense increased by four points because he was unarmed. “Sweet!”

Scott could do nothing more with his skills at the moment, but he knew that he would be visiting that screen often. He considered his options for the moment and decided that his best path forward would be to heavily grind his physical attributes for now. When his basic spells were mastered he would focus on developing his magic more. It might be a mistake, but he did not like the idea of being so fragile.

His new life in this world was not one of sedentary gaming, or forced participation. He literally lived or died by his decisions and the likelihood that he could keep hoping for someone to save him from his own stupidity was small. He loved the idea of learning magic. It was one of his secret dreams.

However, he wanted to be able to survive in this world. Supposedly, he could not permanently die. That did not mean that he wanted to test that theory. Fighting monsters might seem like a bizarre game-like experience, but the pain was real. He took injuries. Sure, he would be able to completely heal after a day or two of rest, or after the application of healing abilities. That did not mean that he could not feel fear.

Whether or not this place was a game, he could not say. All he knew was that he could literally do whatever he wanted. He had a fresh start. He would make the most of the hand he had dealt for himself, and see just where this new life would take him.

Light gently peaked through the clouds and reflected brilliantly from the crystalline architecture of a massive floating city. The city in the clouds was the home of the divine race. Some thought these beings to be nothing more than a myth. Other people, such as high-level priests had a personal relationship with a particular divine being.

The divine city was the home of the gods, enlightened mortals, and chosen heroes. The gods spent their days managing the world below. They tried to keep a bit of balance and order in the system. That system, known as A.R.S., was responsible for allowing the creatures of Origin to grow beyond simple biological capacities.

One particular goddess had taken an interest in a specific creature on the world below. In fact, she had been the reason for that creature’s existence in the world. Her name was Origin. She was the goddess of life and love. She was also the one responsible for overseeing the process of reincarnation.

“How’s he doing?” asked a soft masculine voice. Origin smiled slightly then looked over to her partner, Silence.

The god known as Silence was a deity that many would refer to as the grim reaper. He was not particularly grim, but he was responsible for the transition of souls from the world of Origin to the afterlife.

He took souls to the land of the dead. Origin brought them back and bid them be reborn. Of course, both of them had subordinate minions who actually performed those tasks directly. They were management personnel and mostly filled out reports and signed off on necessary expenditures.

“Scott seems to be adjusting. I’m curious about what he will do with the new life that I granted him.”

Silence glanced at his work partner. “I bet.”

Origin raised one finger. “Don’t even go there.”

The Grim Reaper laughed gently. “Oh, baby sister has finally grown up and taken an interest in men.”

The blue haired goddess of love glared at her brother. “Who’s a baby sister?”

“I was born first. What can you do?” He spread his hands out sideways and shrugged in a way that bespoke an acceptance of fate.

“You kicked me on the way out of the womb, and climbed over me while I was stunned.” replied the goddess.

“I was in a hurry! I had been trapped in there for months...”

Origin snorted at the black haired end of all mortal things. When he did not seem to be concerned with her ire, she breathed in slowly then snorted once more. “Whatever, stop with the cutesy routine please.”

The death god grinned at her then glanced at the crystalline monitors. “You brought someone from Earth. It was a male someone. You even gave him a free pass to avoid my power...”

“You approved that.” Origin frowned at him. Why was he being such a brat, today?

“Of course, why wouldn’t I approve of the man my baby sister has chosen with her own hands and heart?”

“Oh, you’re impossible!”

“I’m also pretty.” said Silence.

Origin glared hatefully at her brother. Why was he being like this, seriously? “That human merely met the parameters! You know full well it was time to begin the next cycle.”

“Yes, yes. The uppity mortals have gotten uppity and started to learn things. Celestis forbid they learn calculus or something. Let’s send in the extermination squad to rough them up for the crime of learning how to build a simple circuit-board.”

The blue haired goddess shook her head. “That decision comes from the council of elders, and you know it. The only thing we can do is choose a champion and hope that he grows strong enough, fast enough, to keep the damage to a minimum.”

Silence stopped laughing. In fact, he became the epitome of his name. Several minutes passed before he spoke again. “He chose to be a sorcerer, though.”

“Yes, he did.” said Origin.

“That skill-set... he won’t be able to stand against what is to come.”

Delicate fingers curled over and formed into tight fists. “I know that. Sorcerers are powerful but they don’t have direct access to high class spells or physical combat skills.”

“How can he become strong enough to turn the tide if he will have trouble handling even simple monsters at a high level?”

Origin bit her bottom lip then closed her eyes. “He’s from Earth.”

Silence gave her a look. It was a look that bespoke his sentiment clearly. However, he decided to vocalize it as well. “Yes, surely that will help. However, I fail to see the point of your reasoning beyond the extremely minor edge that being an Earth Human will provide. There are literally thousands of high-level fighters and magic users in this world who could have become a champion.”

She shook her head. “None of them met my requirements.”

“Bullshit.” said Silence in a flat tone. He knew his little sister better than that.

The goddess frowned. “Fine, I’m tired of it. I’m just tired of it!”

Silence listened for a while as his sister ranted over their mutual grievance. The council of elders routinely destroyed human towns and cities that grew too powerful. It was supposedly necessary since the ARS system would allow humans to grow powerful enough to rival the gods in time. A single mortal who achieved such power could be banished to the abyss or elevated to godhood. Entire countries of extremely powerful mortals could become a major issue, however.

Humans and other mortals were expected to try and become as strong as they could. That was the entire point of ARS. However, the moment that they started to get ideas about disregarding or overthrowing the gods they would be stepped on... Hard.

“I know why you hate it. I do too. Yet, how can a human from Earth help the situation? Every one of us loves them, obviously. But, he would have to be able to do something extreme to make up for the power disparity.”

Origin smirked at her brother. “Where is that human, now?”

“Where?”  asked Silence.

His sister nodded. Silence checked Origin’s monitor. “Clearly he is fighting a large rabbit in the forest near Victory Station. He is also being beaten quite severely, though he does seem to be winning.”

Origin turned off her monitor. “Yes, now where is he?”

“Wouldn’t he still be fighting that rabbit?”

“Yes, but find him with your own power or equipment.”

Her brother decided to humor her and started to search the world with his senses. He immediately zeroed in on the Victory Station region and even checked the forest nearby. However, he could not find the human that he sought. “Did you teleport him away?”

A slow, predatory smile crossed Origin’s face. “No. He is there.”

“Why can’t I see him?” He should be able to sense every soul in the world. If he could not sense a mortal soul, no one could. It was his entire reason for existence!

“Simple! I never entered his information into the main system. I’m allowed to keep my chosen champion a secret, and that means that I can hide information about him. You and Mid are the only others who know who and what he is.”

He smiled at her in turn. “Mid, huh?”

Silence felt slightly better about the situation. If Mid was on board with it, then there might be hope.

Origin nodded, her smirk never departing her lips. She had chosen a champion who could not be searched in the system. His champion’s nature would have made it hard to discover him with divine senses as well, but as an Earth Human his spiritual radiance was an entirely natural one. He would not stand out in a crowd and could easily blend in with the background spectrum. He would be practically invisible to the gods, unless he walked up to one and told them who and what he was. He might as well be a single molecule of water in the heart of the World Sea.

***

The fields south of Victory Station were home to many farmers. They were also home to the occasional hungry rodent. The farmer and the rodent did not co-exist on a friendly basis. The farmers wanted the land to grow crops and raise animals. The rodents wanted to eat the crops and possibly the other animals. The bigger rodents might even try to eat the farmers.

Scott strolled merrily through the fields. He had finally completed the damned rabbit hunting job. Rabbits, though numerous, were not a swarming creature. They also only operated at certain times of the day for the most part.

Rabbits came out in the early morning and late evening. So, his primary hunting time was just before dawn, and just before nightfall. He had a good six hour hunting window between those two times, but the rest of the day was nearly useless for a rabbit hunter.

Over the course of the last four days he had managed to find and defeat five or six rabbits in the morning and a similar number at night. The rest of the day he had managed to find one or two. One day he had not found any. He now understood part of the reason why this job paid a bit more than the parts were worth.

Scott saw a man tending to a field and called out to him. “Hello, there!”

The man stopped weeding the field and looked up. “Yeah? Hello.”

“Sorry to bother you, but do you know a farmer named John?”

The man looked at Scott curiously then asked, “Why you want to know, lad?”

Scott considered being offended by the man’s brusque tone, but decided that the farmer was not being offensive on purpose. “I took up a request to hunt forty rabbits and wanted to turn it in.”

“Ah! I see. This your first time doing a rabbit hunt for Farmer John?”

The sorcerer nodded and the farmer chuckled softly. He stood up, his old bones creaking in protest. “There ain’t actually a farmer named John, lad. It’s a group thing. A bunch of us farmers chip in a few Fayth to hire someone to depopulate the area a bit.”

“Oh? Is that right? Who do I give these rabbit parts to then?”

“You got all of them?”

Scott smiled. “Well, the flyer said forty rabbit parts. I have a few more than that.”

The farmer gestured at the mighty rabbit hunter. “Just turn ‘em in at the guard station at the front gate. Tell them you have a delivery for Farmer John. They’ll sort you out.”

“Thank you! Sorry to have bothered ya.” said Scott.

“No trouble, lad.  I could do with a break, and least ways you had a good reason. Damned rabbits never stop coming unless you take down a few now and then.” The old farmer went back to his weeding and Scott returned to town.

When he arrived at the gate he smiled. There was a familiar guard on duty. “Good afternoon Sergeant Arne.”

“Lad! Good afternoon to you as well. You seem to be keeping busy.” The guard sergeant who had saved Scott from grass rat related death eyed the novice sorcerer for a moment.

“Yes. I just finished up collecting some rabbit parts for Farmer John.”

“Did you now?” Arne’s eyes lit up. It was not a hard request, but it could take a while.

Scott nodded at the man then called up his inventory screen. “A farmer told me that I am supposed to turn them in here at the gate, though?”

“Ah, yes. You’ll have to take your bounty chit to the town hall to get paid, but we can take the proof off your hands here. Follow me.”

Scott followed Arne into the gate and over to the gatehouse. The good sergeant pointed at a table near the far wall. “Just dump them out there, and one of the recruits will sort them later.”

“Thanks.” Scott walked over to the table and dropped the various whiskers and pelts onto the table.

Arne eyed his haul critically then asked, “Lad, you didn’t gather any meat?”

“Uh no...Was I supposed to?”

“No, for the quest anything you got would do. Still, it seems a waste not to get a bit of meat out of your hunts.”

“Uhm...” Scott was not sure how to tell the man that he had gotten no meat because none had dropped. The people of this world seemed to understand the game-like nature of its existence, but how far did that extend?

“Ah, you’re a sorcerer and a young one at that. You probably don’t have any survival skills.”

“Survival?” asked Scott. He had the lore ring that he had received from Mid, but it required a great deal more experience to acquire the survival skill than he was willing to expend on the task at present!

“Yes, lad! How are you going to survive in the wilds without them?”

Scott thought about it then said, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe I will just have to gnaw on a monster while it is attacking me?”

Arne snorted at him then started to laugh. “Lad, lad. Save up some money and buy a survival lore crystal ring. Lore rings are expensive, but at least you can learn the skills.”

“I haven’t seen any for sale at the local shops.”

“Yeah, you’d have to wait till Regal Alice is open. She will probably open tomorrow night.”

“She’s only open one day a week?” What kind of business model was that?

The guard sergeant shook his head. “Regal Alice is a lore sage merchant. When she comes to town she opens up shop for a week, usually.”

“What’s a lore sage merchant?”

“You’ve never heard of them?” asked Arne.

“I can honestly say that I have not.” said Scott.

Arne rubbed his chin for a moment. “Lore Sage Merchants are people who have mastered the skills of a lore sage and a merchant. Sort of like a Mage-Knight, or a Celestial Arc-Paladin. Regal Alice mastered both skill sets completely and was able to reincarnate as an advanced class, the Lore Sage Merchant.”