I came back to chaos. It is really weird to take control of your VR body while flying through the air. I didn’t try to fight the experience and kept going with the jab I was delivering. My target was a large green bug about the size of a dog. It had three sets of wings and made an awful buzzing noise. I cut it down and threw it to the side as green fluids spilled from its cracked carapace.

I looked around saw more bugs swarming towards the group. “Fear aura, one minute.” The bugs quickly began to retreat. “This doesn’t look like a desert.”

“Oh thank god you are back. Thank all the gods.” One cried out. What came out was a long explanation about stealing a ship, a storm, and then becoming marooned on this island.

“…on fire. It went great at first, but then the bugs and lizards got pissed and started attacking us again. We have been fighting on and off for three days. Every time we try to build a boat or raft they attack. We thought about swimming but we wouldn’t be able to take any weapons.” Tor finished from her position on the ground where she was resting.

“Why didn’t you just have my AP use fear aura?” There was a long moment of silence. I let out a sigh. “This was the reason why I wanted to go over everyone’s skills in case of something like this. Alright, stuck on a hostile island being swarmed by bugs and lizards. Any poisons?” I asked Three.

“Nothing of note, there are just a lot. My arms are tired from stabbing. Huh, never thought I would say that….” He trailed off.

“Alright all of you get some sleep. I will stand guard, and we can discuss things more at dawn.”

“Great to have you back Kenji.” Two said.

“Yeah sleep, no one wake me up.” Tor said. All my skills and everything else had remained static while I had been logged out. I went through my stretches to get a feel for my VR body. A bug would occasionally come by, but they made good target practice for my throwing knives. I frowned at realizing two of them had been lost somehow.

Morning came and I could sense everyone had a renewed sense of energy from their smiles. Even Tor got up fairly early looking ready to do something. “What are all your levels?” I asked.

“Fifty two.” One said.

“Forty nine.” Two said.

“Fifty seven.” Three said. Wow, he had really jumped the most. Tor just shook her head.

“They are all around level fifty to sixty.” Tor said to my unspoken question.

“Alright, food?”

“Lizard meat.” One let out a moan.

“Water?”

“Lots of fresh streams.” Two replied.

“Equipment?”

“Holding together.” Three answered.

“Alright then. We are here, we have resources, and there are a lot of bugs. I would easily bet there is something hidden on this island. We will take a look, burn the hive, and then get out of here. Three, how is your fire magic coming?”

“Awesome. I chant to the god of Oxygen and then the god of Fire and boom! Making fire literally burns through MP. More cost effective this way. I have about three good attacks I can power. Got to give credit to Solid Steel for giving me the idea.” Three said.

“Good people invent, great people steal.” I replied and Three grinned.

“First thing the mountain. I see we are out of arrows, so Three and Tor in the center. I will take the front. One you take back right and Two you take back left. Anything left from the ship?” I asked.

“Nope what you see is it. The bugs destroyed everything else.” Tor said with a sigh.

“Alright then, let’s go.” We set off. The first part was through a vast swath of charred forest. They definitely had been busy. I saw the remains of hundreds of bugs decorating the landscape. I would kill bugs and if we were starting to become overwhelmed I would pulse my fear aura and sent them scattering.

We came across a couple of giant lizards that looked very similar to Komodo Dragons. The trick was to be calm and then stab them in the face when they got close with their powerful teeth filled jaws. I saw Two smash one with his war hammer sending a slight tremor through the ground and mushing its head into pulp.

Thankfully after a couple hours the terrain began to rise and the trees decreased along with the bugs. It was a much appreciated change as we slowly climbed up the mountain. We reached a ridge and looked back behind us. I could see the long stretch of forest going east and west along with the burnt out section directly in front of me. Looking to my right, west, I saw the mountain ridge dropping down into the forest. To the east it continued on as far as I could see.

“This is a big island.” Two said.

“Let’s find some place to stop for the night.” I replied. We found a small cliff and we got a fire going. We had charred lizard meat for dinner. It was nasty. Not death poison nasty, but in a stringy, chewy way nasty. It was hard and when you did manage to rip a chunk off it was like gum, you just couldn’t chew it apart easily.

The taste was bland for the most part, but that kind of made it worse. If it had tasted bad at least I could have focused on that. I also noticed that my SP was visibly going down from trying to eat it. “How did you manage to live off of this?”

“Painfully.” Tor replied. Thankfully the lizards were quiet at night and the bugs seemed content enough to leave us alone.

The next morning we woke up and climbed up to the peak. “Look over there.” One said. I followed his finger and saw a building at the summit of a peak far to our east. “That is going to be a long trip.”

“Then we best get started.”

It took nine days of walking. The worst part was that we needed to go and kill a lizard for food every so often. Then there were the terrain features we had to go around, like cliffs, ravines, and more cliffs. There were no mountain monsters. We came to the base of the mountain with the domed building on it and began our ascent.

It wasn’t the tallest mountain in the area, but it was long slog up. Cresting the last ridge I was greeted by the sight of an old man sitting on a grass mat in front of the weather worn dome structure. “Observe.”

Haratio ZableckLvL: 1Strongest Stat: ConstitutionHP: 1291MP: 24SP: 201

“Visitors, well this is a surprise.” I was still in shock at how such a wise looking old man on top of a mountain on an island with swarms of monsters was still alive.

“Not many people around?” I asked as the rest of my group crested the ridge up to the plateau as well.

“Sadly they have all passed on and I Haratio am the only one who remains.”

“Well what are you guarding?”

“Nothing.”

“You don’t build a giant dome structure up here for nothing.”

“Ah, well there used to be something.” I just stared at him.

“And?”

“It was taken back to the bug’s nest.”

“And what is this thing.” Sword of awesome power, sword of awesome power, I thought over and over.

“Ah, just a curiosity of a time long ago. I only sit up here and eat from my garden since I am trapped and my village destroyed.”

“You don’t know any secret martial arts styles?”

“Saddly no. I was but a young boy when my people perished.”

“How old are you?”

“Older than you.” That was the last straw. This guy was really annoying me with bland expression

“Three find out if he knows anything more. One you’re his buddy. The rest of us, let’s check out the building.” Three gave a grin and began advancing on the old man as we set off around him.

“While I am weak, I am not helpless.” The old man said. “So stay your hand or else.” I pulled out a throwing knife and threw it. It pierced the old man in the side of the neck and he went down with a gurgle.

“Sorry Three, but I honestly didn’t want him to explode the mountain top or something.” I said.

“It’s fine. I am going to see how he ticks.” Three walked over and began to dissect the old man. I hesitated going into the building as I watched in morbid fascination. First Three cut off the white robe the man had been wearing then he began to carve open his chest. Once that was done he plunged in with both hands pulling things out and just throwing them off to the side. I was tempted to ask what he was looking for but changed my mind.

The building has a number of worn glyphs carved over it. Inside was much the same with an empty pedestal in the center. “Ten gold, that whatever was here is at the bottom of the bug lair inside the queen sac or something.” I said with a sigh.

“So not taking that bet and ewww.” Tor said.

“Any of you got a guess on what was here?” I asked.

“Well probably something about the size of a VR helmet or smaller based on the size of the pedestal. There is no mounting device or stand so I would guess it has at least one flat surface.” Tor said.

“Two smash the pedestal open, a couple spots on the floor, and the back wall. Hey, there may be something hidden and I don’t see where the old man was living in here. This is just a large empty room.”

“Yeah, that is odd.” Tor said. Two took a swing at the pedestal. Just before the hammer struck a blue glow appeared and the hammer bounced off.

“Looks like the place is protected.” I muttered.

“Get out here guys!” One shouted. We all rushed outside. A blue glow had surrounded the old man as his flesh knit back together. Unfortunately for him Three had his hands inside his chest and kept yanking at various things preventing the old man from coming back.

“Can we keep him?” Three asked. We all looked at him. “This way I can keep trying new things and he can’t die! Imagine what we could learn…..for science!” He shouted the last part and we all let out a sigh. “See if I yank his heart out it slowly crumbles and reforms, but if I leave it half in and half out his regeneration powers get confused if they should reform the organ or fix the current one, that’s science.” I gave a silent prayer for whoever had taught him in school.

“Three any way you can disable him?” I asked.

“Well….let’s see.” He reached off to the side and grabbed a good sized stone and then stuck it in the old man’s chest. “There, so when he regenerates he will be completely slow and off balance.” It was actually a really good idea. I wish I had thought of that for the Reaper. Well the Reaper would probably dissolve whatever was stuck inside of it or use some sort of magic.

“Let’s find the old man’s home. He said he had vegetables, I am tired of lizard meat.” Tor said. We found a small stone hut butting against the side of the domed building. There was a mountain spring and garden down some stone steps. There was nothing in his house except some cooking implements.

“Three lay him on the ground over here. Can you put pebbles in his eyeballs so he can’t see when he reforms?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Three said and got to work. Once he was done we stood to the side while the old man slowly pulled himself back together. I had Two nearby ready to smash his head in if he started a chant. The old man slowly reformed and let out a groan.

“Hey Haratio, you are going to answer some questions clearly or else. If you don’t answer the way we like we are going to kill you and start again. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” He groaned out.

“First, why aren’t you dying?”

“Guardian.”

“What does that mean, explain.”

“I guard what was left here and by the power imbued I cannot die.” That sounded nice.

“Can this power be transferred?”

“Don’t know.”

“How many years old are you?”

“Don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“I stopped counting after three hundred.” Wow that was a long time.

“What does this artifact look like?”

“Cube of Etherion, markings etched into it.”

“Why haven’t you been killed by monsters?”

“Hidden from sight.”

“Whose sight?”

“Her sight, this place is protected, do not speak her name here.” Ten to one he meant Tafe.

“Does her name rhyme with-“

“NO!” He said. Two twitched but stopped himself from smashing him at the last second. “She can sense such things. The future, hopes, dreams, fears, all of it.”

“Alright, what is so special about this artifact?”

“Entrusted to protect and guard it.”

“How were you planning to attack us?”

“I would call aid from the gods.” A priest or monk of some sort then. That made sense. So this immortal man was living up here near forever guarding an object from Tafe that made him immortal.

“Is your poop immortal?” Three asked.

“….no.”

“Odd since when I cut out your intestines it dispersed like your other organs and then reappeared inside of you.”

“Anyways, what else does this artifact do besides keep you alive?”

“I cannot say, for those words have been bound from this world beyond all sight.”

“Great, just great. Where is this artifact now?”

“Ruins of my old village to the north. The bugs made a nest there….” He trailed off. Probably thinking about all the people he had lost and times past. I had Three cut him back open and remove the rocks from his eyes but put one in his brain. Three did note that the flesh was slowly trying to push the rocks out of it. So he really had complete regeneration.

We all had a nice vegetable stew and meat cut off from the immortal man. I did note that we didn’t get cannibal from consuming him, I guess that meant he wasn’t really human. After that we really dug in.

“I vote we keep him as a food source.” Tor said.

“And for science of course.” Three added in between mouthfuls of stew.

“Of course, any objections?”

“Well, he might have friends. If he is a cleric we don’t want the gods mad at us.” Two said.

“Hmm, well I don’t give two coppers about them. Food is food. If he was useful the god’s would have aided him already. Three you are now being put in charge of old man duty. Figure out which portion of his body he regenerates around so you don’t have to carry as much.”

“Got it boss.”

“Double watch rotation tonight like normal.” One groaned. “I know, but better safe than sorry.” The following morning we woke up. During his watch Three had worked out the old man formed up around his heart. So he cut it out and stuck his left hand into it. Blood would keep dripping down and flesh would slowly form up around it.

“I wonder what it would feel like as a player?” One asked.

“Unpleasant.” Two said. I could only agree. We were standing on the north side of the mountain scanning the coast line on the far side of the island for any signs of a village. “Over there on the right, see where the sea is fairly close to the base of the mountain, the trees are much larger.”

“Hmmm, the village would probably be over grown, since who knows how long it has been. Alright then, that is where we head. Stay sharp everyone.” We set off down the mountain. As we approached the tree line there was a loud buzzing.

“Incoming, fear aura one minute.” My teammates held strong as a strong uncomfortable feeling washed over them. The buzzing continued. Out of the forest lifted hundreds of armored beetles. They slowly rose up over the tree tops towards us.

“Melee up front, casters stay back. Tor and Three save your MP unless absolutely necessary. Flame on!” I took point and the battle began. The beetles were easily slain as green ichor splashed on the rocks. Their armor, while it did require my blows to be heavier, wasn’t that much stronger than a exoskeleton of the bugs I had killed before.

All they really had was numbers, and they had a lot of those. Five long minutes they kept coming wave after wave and we did a slow fighting retreat. When the fight was over most of my SP was gone and I figured it was the same for everyone else. “Retreat back up the mountain, we rest up and try again this afternoon.”

The afternoon was spent lazily lying around eating stew and cooked old non-human man meat. “I wonder if there is blood magic?” Three said.

“Maybe, but most everything seems to revolve around chants and the twisted names.” Tor replied.

“Well maybe Obdol (OB-dol) would do something.” Three said.

“You already have Oxygen and Fire, no need to add more to the mix. Here is a much better question. That Reaper was able to suck the MP out of things.” The gleam in Three’s eyes was so bright I thought for a moment they would explode with rays of light.

“That is a great idea! Maybe magic is in the blood. The demonic corruption is in the blood. So if I drink this guy’s blood maybe I can suck out his MP?” Three said in a rush. Then glommed onto the heart his hand was inserted into and began drinking the blood as it formed.

“You really had to give him this idea?” Tor said.

“Hey, equal opportunity around here. Also more MP is never a bad thing.” We both looked at Three. “Most of the time.” Tor let out a sigh. Three thankfully washed his face off before we went down the mountain. He had been trying a combination of meditation and drinking blood with no success to unlock a new skill.

We approached the corpses of the beetles and saw giant millipedes crawling over them consuming their flesh or chitin or whatever bug parts were called. Once again we began to slaughter them, “Damn, this is just never ending with these things. Imagine if they were on the continent and started to spread.” One said as he hacked another one in two.

“Less…complaining….more cutting.” I said in between strikes. It was starting to become difficult to tell where the bug parts began and the rock left off. The mountainside right before the tree line was splattered with bug corpses and trampled from the two battles. “If things hold true, a larger beasty will come to eat the dead ones.”

“I don’t think we can take much more and it is getting dark.” I looked at the sun. I then held up my hand towards it with my palm facing towards me. I then counted the number of fingers that it took from the horizon to the sun. A full hand being an hour with four fingers. “We have about an hour and fifteen minutes of daylight left. Let’s head back and get washed up again.”

I did have Three switch hands he was using to hold the heart and he didn’t complain. Flesh was not meant to sit inside other flesh for extended periods of time. We were going through the remaining vegetables fairly quickly, we probably only had a week left if we kept eating at this pace.

As I sat there on my solitary watch meditating and listening for any attacks my mind began to wander. I wanted that artifact. With an immortal artifact I could do things that would make even Three blink in surprise and shudder. Well maybe not shudder, but they would be epic. The key part would be not getting captured like the old man.

The morning came and we went back down to the battlefield. All the bug corpses were missing. “Well that isn’t good.” One muttered.

“Indeed, alright let’s start up some fires and burn our way down. Flame on.” Thankfully there had only been a few light sprinkles at night and nothing too heavy in the way of rain. I went first and burnt everything down in my path with my flame sword. We came to a cliff and I began looking around for a way down.

That was when we all heard buzzing. “Not again.” One moaned. I honestly agreed with him. These bugs were tiresome. “OH SHIT!”

There rising up over the trees was something out of an ancient horror movie. “Observe.”

Swarm LordLvL: ???Strongest Stat: ???HP: ?????MP: ?????SP: ????

“That thing is a higher level than the Reaper. Three prep some heavy fire magic. Two and One protect the casters and begin a fighting retreat, we need open space.” From behind the eight winged, four scythe, half dragon half bug monster a swarm of smaller insects began to rise up from the forest.

Tor and Three quickly began moving back up the mountain with One and Two right behind them. I stood there trying to figure out the monster’s weak points. It could just have mental protection possibly, since it may have a hive mind and not be insanely strong. That was the only thought giving me hope at the moment.

The first wave of bugs hit and I kept to slashes so I wouldn’t have to deal with a corpse becoming stuck on my blade. Thankfully as much as the trees hindered my movement they also hindered the bugs as they attempted to swarm me.

I kept an eye on the Swarm Lord as I kept up my fighting retreat but it continued to stay in the back, content to let its minions tire me out. After half a minute there was a break and I began retreating up the mountain. The Swarm Lord followed at a distance, its multi-faceted eyes glinting in the early morning sun.

I reached the site of our first two battles and my team had already set up. One was guarding Tor while Two was staying by Three. I turned and the bugs began coming over the trees. I didn’t pay attention to the their appearance only the fact that I kept stabbing and stabbing. I felt myself grow quicker and my SP rocket up. Tor probably boosted by Dexterity.

The Swarm Lord came over the tree tops. I began to feel a massive headache as it stared at me. “Mental defense.” I called out. Tor had done the same, but the others hadn’t unlocked that skill yet and collapsed to their knees.

“Three I need you to boost my flame blade if you can. You can do it!” I shouted. The boss monster continued to hover up over the tree tops. I heard Three chanting slowly as if each word was a burden. I noticed another wave of bugs approaching. Air began to compress around my blade and the flame began to grow brighter and brighter.

“Sorry flame sword, hope to see you again.” I whispered. I threw it for all I was worth, putting every ounce of Strength I had into the attack. The Swarm Lord tried to move, but like most oversized creatures speed was not its strong point. Nus’ Awakening sunk into the middle portion a bit to the left side. While normally the flames would have gone out when I had let go, Three had managed to keep them going after I had thrown the blade.

I staggered back as an overpowering mental attack struck me. The blade melted through the monster’s body by about a foot before the flames gave out. Green ichor poured out of the wound and splattered against the tree tops. I noticed that the blade had stayed wedged into the monster’s body.

“Mental defense.” I called out before the skill ran out. Another psychic attack slammed into me. The bugs that had been approaching scattered and the Swarm Lord began to descend. I really wanted my flame sword back. The thing stood at least twenty feet tall. With four scythe arms on mutli-limbed joints, two massive feet with three wicked looking spiked prongs to keep it balanced, and who knows what else.

Tor applied another Dexterity boost just as the previous one ran out. I watched as my SP fluctuated wildly for a second. “I’m out.”

The wound my flame blade had made was still dripping ichor and the occasional piece of bug guts. I had one shot at this before all my buffs ran out. I raced forward. The first gleaming blade cut through the air above me. Using a scythe had given me an appreciation of how the weapon worked. It was all about movement, twists, and slashes. The good news was that they were only sharp on the outside and the tips.

I pushed myself to the side at the last second and the blade slammed into the rock pelting me with debris from the impact. I kept moving forward not slowing down for an instant. Two blades cut out, high and low, left and right. I dove in-between them and felt part of my right foot get sliced off. I ignored my HP bar that had lost a massive chunk and kept going on one and half feet as I kept my forward momentum with a roll and kept going. “Mental defense!”

The monster tried to leap backwards, but it was too late. I leapt again straight for the gap in its exoskeleton made by my flame blade. I dove into the bug guts with a sickening squish. My hand smacked into the side of the monster’s body and I lost my grip on my sword. Green fluid rushed over me. I struggled around and managed to grab onto the blade of Nus’ Awakeneing.

I yanked but the sword wouldn’t budge even as it cut into my palms. Suddenly gravity began to tilt, the monster was going to try something. “Flame on!” I shouted as bug juice sloshed into my mouth. The blade came free as it burst into flames. I felt the stringing sensation, but ignored it. I lifted the blade up and pulled it inside the monster with me.

*** TOR’S POV ***

I had just used up the last of my MP. We were screwed. Not even Kenji could defeat this thing. He raced forward and I saw him lose part of his foot and winced as he continued on leaving a bloody trail. He then leapt again straight into the creature and I saw his sword fly away. There was a moment of utter stillness as the boss monster seemed unable to comprehend what just happened.

Then I saw the flame blade burst into light and pulled inside the monster. It began to thrash about as fluids continued to exit its wound. “Wake up you idiots!” I kicked One. Two and Three were recovering. We watched as the creature continued to shake about. It started to lift off into the air but then collapsed and began rolling about.

Its giant wings were ripped and torn as it rolled about on the rocks. It rose up again and turned to the forest moving in a half run half flight method. It ran off into the tree line. “What just happened?” One asked.

***

Ramponator: Bugs…ewww

6996: I wonder where that is?

TheLordBreckley: HE LIVES!

TidalWave: I believe in you

Beetlejuice: My babies

GODHAXLOL: HORSEY? I WANT HORSEY!

FallenGod: /sigh

UltimataSecret: What a noob swarm

FaceReaper: I want bugs with laser beams

Ramponator: Why would bugs have laser beams….?

***

Author’s Notes: I feel a bit sad about losing at least one favorite after the last two chapters and getting a lot of negative ratings. I wish I could have made my story better. L I honestly have to keep the plot moving forward and there are only so many ways to do that without the story becoming stale. In my quick and dirty outline there was only going to be a mention of him needing to leave for a bit because his mother was ill.

The problem was it was the only realistic way to take the MC out for a bit, besides something over the top like a terrorist attack. I couldn’t do that since it would feel too much like dues ex machina, I couldn’t have him choose to leave since he is in VR all the time, finally if he had close family they would be in VR also and there would be that drama. I didn’t mean to offend, but it was the only thing I could think of.

If the MC was present then the other characters would not have a chance to grow and gain depth of their own. In addition the MC was never meant to be a serial killer like Three (who I put in as a foil to show how bad things can be), but a regular joe playing a game and trying to make a living.

You came for the violence, stuck around for the story, and were tricked into a philosophical argument. I do want to say if you honestly think I am not being true to the characters please let me know. Also if the plot does not make sense let me know. I appreciate the feedback.

We are currently hovering around the 135 mark. Come on team, those slime stories won’t slay themselves!