Chapter 1: Awakening

“WOOF. BARK. ARF.

RUFF RUFF. AWOOOOOOO!”

“Ruff..?”

A blinding white flash encompassed the land and a deafening, loud, booming sound came and changed it all.

YOU HAVE GAINED SENTIENCE!

‘Where am I? What am I?... Who am I?’ I thought as I woke up in dense ocean of green trees. I could have sworn I was just recently waiting for my master to return. A blue transparent screen was floating only 10 inches from my face. What were these words? I didn’t know what words like sentience was, or “gained”. It was a funny word.

I looked around, I was not alone. I could hear and smell other animals some distance away, and possibly other dogs.

“RUFF RUFF!”

NEW LANGUAGE CREATED: ‘RUFFISH’

Ignoring the screen I ran as fast as my legs could take me for my master. I was getting terribly hungry and could not see any signs that may lead to my home. As I reached towards the source of the noise, it became more and more rowdy.

A large group of dogs stood in a circle looking as if they were discussing something. Many different breeds, small and big, thick coated and thin sat alike. As I galloped closer I began to pick up on their conversation.

“We’re smarter than the cats now!” One of the bigger dogs said.

“Yeah!” Followed the crowd, with a howl.

“How can that be possible!? The cats were always smarter than us!” One small poodle argued.

“No they weren’t! They were just… mean! Yeah! Mean!” The bigger dog replied.

At that moment, one of the dogs asked a question that changed what they were talking about entirely.

“Friends… where are humans?” A pitbull asked, curiously.

“The hoomans are just gone for walk, right?” A dachshund replied.

“Who’ll feed me? Who’ll take care of me?” A great dane panicked as he started to cry.

“Hooman! Where you at!? We need you to feed us good meat!!!” A doberman shouted.

“Wait guys, what happened if they are just planning a birthday party-,” A german shepherd said.

“Again, for the last time, no one cares that it's your birthday today!” The doberman shouted angrily.

“Ahem!” I interrupt them with a short cough, they all look at me with worry in their eyes, quick flashes of fear then eventually trust.

“Friends, have you seen my master? I have just woken up from my nap, last thing I remember was the big light.” I continued.

They do not reply only looking at me, the bigger doberman responds finally. “We are also facing the same problems… friend… We all have woken up recently as well.”

“Yes, the light! It was so bright, one thing i know for sure is that my favorite tree is still here” The german shepherd walked over to the tree. It reeked of his piss. “Next to this tree was my house, and my masters home! But here we are standing and no masters home!” he continued rambling.

“I’m scared…” the great dane said as he whined in sadness. If there was one thing I could collect with my newfound “setience” is that where ever our masters are, they are gone.

YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE: THINKER

None of these made any sense to me, but every time these “statuses” appeared something good would follow. Concentrating on it information of it was displayed.

TITLE: THINKER

Info: This title grants the user +2 Intelligence and +2 wisdom for thinking the right questions, even if that question doesn’t necessarily have an answer.

Looking around, after the old dobermans words, most of the animals were starting to panic, some whining and others just looking down at the ground. Finding the opportunity, I try to lighten the mood up.

“Friends, now is not the time to be scared, we have a very hard life ahead of us. We may never know how long till we see our masters again! Weeks? Months? Years? Some of us cannot last an hour without getting our ears scratched. We must band together! For our masters!” I said, trying to motivate them, many of the words I used I could remember my master using them. I tried my best to sound like the smartest in this group.

YOU HAVE GAINED A SKILL: INSPIRE I

SKILL: INSPIRE I, IS EFFECTIVE

Quickly the mood of the group changed, this odd group of 16 or so, started a cheer of singing, howling and nonsensical joking. I join them as we sit around the big beech tree, its sprouting limbs gave us shade from the hot summer sun.

“So what do we do now?” Asked the german shepherd, looking at me.

The rest of the dogs also looked at me, puzzled. The speech lightened their mood, but the unknown of what's to come for now and later made them look to me for answers.

NEW MISSION: ASSUME LEADERSHIP

Info: This pack of dogs look toward you for guidance, assume leadership of this pack.

(Y/N)

Reward: Leader title, access to race management

This sounded like something way over my head, I didn't not know what management meant but previous to this event my master made me take some leadership courses and house training, maybe that is what It meant. I look around, most of the dogs were small, the rest where german shepherds, Bull mastiffs, and Dobermans. I was a German Shepherd, my family was breed as the local german police dogs, but my master grew to love me and made me as his pet instead. My stomach growls, and I say.

“For now friends, let us find some food. As the … Leader of this group no one will grow hungry till we find our masters!”

YOU ARE NOW THE LEADER OF THIS GROUP, PLEASE NAME IT

I think for a second, and choose “Hunds”.

YOU ARE NOW THE LEADER OF THIS RACE “HUNDS”. More/

I click on more, looking at it for more information.

Race Status

Name: Hunds (50034th)

DP: 0

(average) Health Points

100

MP:

100

Population:

19

(average)Strength

10

DEX

10

(average)Vitality

10

INT

10

Charisma

10

Agi

10

Racial Traits:

Intelligence I, Loyal

AN/: 10 and 100 are starter points, for example 100 for a tiger is bigger than a 100 for dog because other things play into it like natural skin.

A loud ping suddenly sounded, and everyone looked at their screens.

SYSTEM SCANNING - COMPLETE

EVALUATING RACE SCORE AND STATISTICS

RACE RANKING (TENTATIVE)

1. DRAGONS

2. ELVES

3. DWARVES

4. TROLLS

5. GOBLINS

....

....

54. TIGERS

55. ELEPHANTS

56. BULLS

57. CONSTRICTORS

58. SHARKS

....

....

....

....

....

194. HOGS

195. DEER

196. SHEEP

197. LLAMA

198. CATS

199. DOGS

.....

.....

.....

555. SEAGULLS

556. MOLES

557. BADGERS

558. OTTERS

559. RATS

.....

….

50034. HUNDS

(AN/: The races as a whole is shown, not specific factions, the mc isn’t the only dog leader. After a while specific factions will be shown as things stabilize.)

SCHEDULED DAYS LEFT FOR THE NEXT SCAN:

1100 DAYS

RANKING LIMIT FOR THE NEXT SCAN:

500 SPOTS

WARNING:

UNRANKED RACE WILL RECEIVE SENTIENCE REMOVAL

INITIATING REWARDS DISTRIBUTION

REWARDS:

RANK 1-200

+ Racial Trait

+ Patron God

+ Race Mutation (2)

+ Improved acquisitions (Skill and Stat)

RANK 201-500

+ Racial Trait

+ Patron God

+ Race Mutation (1)

RANK 501-1000

+ Racial Trait

+ Patron God

I quickly look through all this information and try to absorb it. A few of the other dogs could understand it while the others were too dull to comprehend any of it.

“For now brethren let us worry about food and shelter, and find more of our kind.” I say while dismissing my screen.

They look at me and consensus was made that food and shelter was most important at the moment.

5 WEEKS AFTER THE CHANGE, MC POV

It has been a few weeks after the “change”, it has become an unsolicited truth that it is possible our masters will not come back. Many of us have come to resent them for leaving us here in the wide wilderness. Tents and shacks have been made around the beech tree, we use it as a landmark as it was the largest in the area.

We are currently creating what we would call the council house, we are going to use it to hold meetings and other things. As our group has risen to a whopping 15 thousand members we will need more space.

Most of us have chosen to be hunters, mostly young adult males. The rest find work in this city which we will call uudNau.

As the last sticks were added and the floor was smoothened, Adolph, representative of the Dobermans walked over to me. He was skinny but tall, and had very developed muscles. He was a lure course racer before the change and led the dobermans and beagles.

“Friend, the rabbit population is only seeming to rise. More and more are coming closer to our territory.” He says under his breath. Friend was a title everyone in the city started to use out of reflex.

The local rabbits were numerous and also gained intelligence. We could not understand them but it was known they too had their own language. We often used them as a source of food other than fish caught from the streams.

“Establish more hunters on the southern front, and make a scouting party that should go and investigate deeper into their own territories, I want no casualties! Those vermins can be quite troublesome at high numbers, but for now stay here we are holding the council.” I reply.

He looked at me surprised, “Oh I have almost forgotten, Kaiser. I will remind Sigmund as well.” He said.

I walk over to the tent, it could hold 50 dogs comfortably. Outside was a elevated stone platform with a smaller stone next to it, meant to be used as step. As I climbed through it and stood in the pillar I looked over the small city. The city had many shacks and tents, most were made by builders who were ordered to since the population increases, other were made by the owners out of impacients. Fellow Hunds walked throughout the city doing house work and transporting material.

“You over there, notify the howlers that the meeting is starting soon.” I command to a young puppling.

“Y-yes sir!” He nervously responds, running quickly.

The howlers were the loudest in the group and would howl together as a way to send long distance messages.

5 minutes later I could hear the piercing howl, and slowly more and more dogs collected on the field in front of me. Most of them were German Shepherds accounting 45% of the population, the other 2 major groups were Dobermans, 26% and Bull Mastiffs, 21%. The smaller dogs were easily killed and mostly died out, the beagles remained somewhat numerous and was needed for their good nose. They were 6% of the population, the other breeds combined accounting for 2%.

As the last groups of hunters arrived, 13 thousand of our brethren sat and waited, we were missing some people and children were not allowed to attend. Some had discussion. Wanting to dismiss them I say, “Quiet down friends, quiet down.” The noise slowly fades until it is fully halted.

Adolph the Doberman, and Sigmund the Bull Mastiff walk up to the stone platform and stand to my left and right. Adolph looks at me giving me the sign for me to start, and Sigmunds old lazy face stood patiently seeming indifferent.

“Friends, brethren, It is time to start the council.”

MAP

(WIP)