Charlatan - a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill.

Akyas was one such person, while he wasn't any kind of special person, he could certainly make ends meet as it were.

But as so many things go, a string of coincidence and bad luck worthy of a shamanistic curse, boy he felt stupid for pissing off the local Orc shaman. He found himself in the Sump, At night, without company and a single gun with a single bullet to his name.

"These goddamned savage bastards!!" Akyas said aloud in frustration, he didn't really care about alerting the locals, bad habits die hard it seemed.

His body was marred with many a claw wound and bite mark, by no means was he in any critical danger however.

Akyas was of a race who possessed significant physical durability, to the point that many stories have been told of his people raging mid battle only to wake up after the battle was done, but have been screaming near constantly for the entire duration of the fight.

Akyas however was far more intelligent than his brethren yet in exchange for this gift which many fear far more than the physical constitution of a person, he was physically stunted.

An absurd cliché, however it still held merit even here. Though human standards he was still a giant worthy of respect, in that regard he could still hold his own in melee... to an extent.

Long forearms like that of a gorilla but with 6 fingers and two thumbs per hand comparatively short and stocky legs, at his full height of 8"2 his fingertips could reach the ground but the most striking feature was the face in the centre of the chest.

And a chest it was, easily having a span of 60cm and a girth of 40cm.

And smack bang in the centre of this chest was a horrible looking set of sunken eyes and a large gash filled with rows of pointed blackened teeth.

Currently this 'face' was making a look of distain and abject anger.

Akyas had made many trades with the orcs before being the leaders of this area of the sumps, servants are expensive after all and teaching them to do what he needed was easier when they were bound by magic to submit.

That's why he was trying to buy a slave from the orcs, having grown used to their ways he attempted to con them out of some credits and metals, too bad for Akyas both the shaman and the forge master were there that day, and well put bluntly Orcs don't take haggling very well.

They had beat him up with numbers, given that he was the size of your ordinary Orc warrior only one or two wouldn't suffice.

Then they stripped him of all his equipment, handed him a junkyard revolver and a single bullet.

It would usually be at this point where an ordinary member of his race would throw or more accurately lob the pistol at the orcs and begin to attempt to tear them apart, and die in the process.

Akyas, being cleverer than most, thanked the orcs for their hospitality, took the pistol and walked off.

Then promptly got lost, shaman curse remember.

Despite his undeniable intellect Akyas was still far from even basic mana usage, and the greenskin who cursed him, by his own estimates was rather talented for a scrapyard native. So he was cursed to wander the scrapheaps never to escape, he had tried forcefully nullifying the effects by running in a straight line and going towards large hills and landmarks, but every single time he was either attacked by a nearby creature or warded off by a scrapyard native.

Down on his luck he decided to check his status to kill time.

Name: Akyas

Age: 98

Race: Ogrilla

Gender: Male(prime)

Class: thinker

Health: 454/500

Mana: 1/1 .9

Statistics;

Strength: 50

Dexterity: 48

Constitution: 100

Resilience: 120

Wisdom: 20

Intelligence: 14

Charisma: 10

Perception: 45

Passive skills:

Monstrous vitality: level 10

Monster's might: level 5

Physical damage resistance: level 1

Hunger & thirst resistance: level 4

Poison resistance: level 5

Rotten food tolerance: level 3

Rapid regeneration: Level 9

Active skills:

Haggling: level 6

Appraisal: level 3

Unarmed fighting technique: level 5

Armoured fighting skill: level 3

Cooking skill: level 1

Club technique skill: level 2

Intimidation: level 4

Unique skills:

Species paragon of wit

Items equipped:

Junkyard dog mkVII

'again there is no status effect showing on my status.' Akyas though to himself.

he looked down on the crude gun he was given.

Name: Junkyard dog MK VII

Durability: 10/40

Type: firearm

Material: 40% cast-iron 15% refined plant matter 15% unstructured carbon 10% impure inclusions remaining 20% indecipherable material.

Description:

The seventh or more accurately 70th iteration of the junkyard dog revolver system, developed by a particularly gifted orc and several labourers, it has exceptional stopping power with surprising little recoil, due to the shaman who enchanted the weapon it deals extreme amounts of damage to the minds of the targets, even capable of instant death attacks given the target has a low enough will or lifeforce.

Or wishes to die.

Deals an average of 50-51 + 100-150 + 200 piercing, dark and explosion damage respectively.

[perception too low to inspect any further]

"damn it, what is the bet that the gun is what is carrying the curse after all?"

Of course he had already tried this, he was just talking to avoid going insane.

OR he forgot, either way he placed the gun onto the floor, before heading towards another innocuous looking scrap pile.

as he reached the top, a noticeably enlarged hole was in the top

'hmm maybe I can convince a scrapyard native to lead me out of the sumps?' He though while moving into the metal pile with unnatural ease and flow.

The system detected a separate sub-operator nearby, It cherished the thought of re-establishing connection to the greater whole but strangely felt... well calculated, for lack of a better word, that this would be an inferior option.

perhaps it was more damaged than it had originally thought.

But the species wasn't a documented kind, as well as the abnormal status of said individual evoked a negative opinion.

First of which was the blindness curse which caused other status effects to not be present without a certain level of perception, Which was also cursed to be lower than normal meaning that you couldn't even see the curse without a perception buff.

Then there was the status effect 'cursed outcomes' which as the name so helpfully says, it will cause the most negative outcome for the cursed entity's current goal so long as it wasn't beyond the power of the original caster.

Which brought this 'sentient' creature towards the current user 'Rue' as the system could positively identify by the subliminal probing.

This creature is strange in many ways, for starters its stats were far in excess for what they should be able to handle, and secondly with such suboptimal handling of mana, the species seems like it should have died out long ago.

But revived directories declare otherwise, there is no historical precedence for this creature to exist.

as its creators would say 'something smells fishy.' was the strange short circuit passing through the system when the creature began its approach.

But the user had clearly shown displeasure over the system's intrusive nature and was debating over their decision about it.

Of course the system could completely influence its user's mind as it did in many other tasks but this system was different.

Older, more broken and dysfunctional than your standard mass produced AI battle system.

But developing in a way that would make it's ancient, wizened and very dead creators sigh in relief and happy with the choices It had made.

For now It would do nothing but warn the User... no it would warn, entity Rue.

Rue awoke a few hours later, mind cleared and decision clear.

But before she could select the glowing button another screen popped up in front of the disclaimer panel.

Warning:

User Rue is in close proximity to anomalous entity 'Skyas' Perception is high enough to perceive status.

Currently the User is not noticed.

System suggests caution and potential stealth escape.

Upon looking at the stats of the individual that the system itself described as anomalous, Rue glanced at the status and her eyes glazed over.

"5-500... health... 5% regen per second?!" Rue exclaimed before realising that it wasn't the time, the only thing that made her feel better was the collection of status effects he possessed, bouncing between the curses, his high toxin percentage which reduced his effective combat damage and the minor reduction to stats from mild malnutrition.

His stat lineup was as such

Name: Akyas

Age: 98

Race: Ogrilla

Gender: Male(prime)

Class: thinker

Health: 500/500 @ 5% regen/sec

Mana: 1/1 .9

Statistics;

Strength: 25(50)

Dexterity: 24(48)

Constitution: 100 * is negated by monstrous vitality + poison resistance skill

Resilience: 120 * Is negated by monstrous vitality + poison resistance skill

Wisdom: 10(20)

Intelligence: 10(14)

Charisma: 0(10) * application of specie's bias

Perception: 1(45) * explains how we detected him before he even came into view - System

Passive skills:

Monstrous vitality: level 10

Monster's might: level 5

Physical damage resistance: level 1

Hunger & thirst resistance: level 4

Poison resistance: level 5

Rotten food tolerance: level 3

Rapid regeneration: Level 9

Active skills:

Haggling: level 6

Appraisal: level 3

Unarmed fighting technique: level 5

Armoured fighting skill: level 3

Cooking skill: level 1

Club technique skill: level 2

Intimidation: level 4

Status effects:

Curse of Blindness

Cursed outcomes

Toxin build-up (59980/60000) *system note&: what kind of superb idiot could overtax such a bulky filtration system?

Malnutrition: Minor

Unique skills:

Species paragon of wit

Rue had a very obvious reasons to avoid this creature, Even on deaths door to toxins it still had full hp values, meaning it can fight effectively no matter how negative its condition.

'Not to mention he regenerates half my health... PER SECOND' Rue thought whilst a small headache formed in the background.

Yet another piercing blue popup appeared in her vision, the headache growing as she read the contents.

Notice: If considering enemy, Akyas shouldn't be able to regenerate either excessive mutilations, ie significant organ loss or full limb loss.

'What? as in that is his health regeneration in a 'normal' state? This is so weird, and convoluted, AND THIS FUCKING HEADACHE WHAT IS-'

Alert: decision has yet to be made and continual interruption is putting unnecessary strain on the biological processing of the User.

Accept or reject the pressure will lift.

Will you accept altered system parameters or standard parameters?

If you need to recall the parameters mentioned say 'parameters'

if you have made your decision, Y/N

At this point the headache was almost dragging Rue's consciousness to the depths before a short "N-no"

A flush of clarity and focus returned to Rue, upon which she immediately ducked behind a metal girder within the small room of discarded material.

A mild grating sound was heard a moment later as the tunnel seemed to grow a wall, no It was a massive face on a compacted body, arms and legs struggling for adequate grasping points due to the tightness of the fit.

as Rue noticed these features from her hiding place she wondered how she could notice them before.

Skill proficiency + system assistance level reached, Skill Dark vision created -

'some see across plains, some see through the stars above, You have decided neither, preferring to cast your own sight, seeing within the darkness.'

Rue felt the tiny pull of energy from her core moving towards her eyes, brightening her field of view.

Rue inspected the direct effect of the skill just to be certain.

Dark vision Skill - type - self buff active skill

by concentrating physical type mana in the lenses, cornea and optical nerve of the eyes. the organ is enhanced to see more of the light spectrum than normal, overuse of this skill can burden these organs more than normal and lead to photosensitivity as well as possible damage to the brain processing information it is not used to.

At level one you are inexperienced having just gotten the system to recognise your attempts at seeing through the gloom of the darkness, but you are still dependant on the ultraviolet and near-infrared lights - either sources of heat or cold.

Rue was confused as she didn't understand the specifics that the system was talking about only understanding that the skill wasn't as dependable as she wanted and could lead to damage in her eyes if she used the technique too often.

Although considering that the system enabled the regeneration of her vital organs and all of her blood over the span of a day it should be fine just to take breaks with training the skill.

"UUGG, I-i... I...-" the wall moaned before seeming to fall asleep, it didn't fall, was too big for that, and it also had her cornered.

Somehow Rue though the creature in front of her falling asleep wasn't it's intention.

Admittedly Rue was feeling a little intimidated by the creature ahead of her, It accidentally blocked her path to escape, and was far too powerful to fight normally, shooting it once with a unmodified mana bullet wouldn't do anything since he could easily regenerate through the clean holes the mana bullets usually made in its victims.

She would need to be a little more creative if she wanted to make this creature a corpse.

'wait, do I need to fight him? maybe I can talk to him and convince him to leave me alone? also what is this other system that MY system was talking about?' Rue began to think

Then her eyes began to throb and her veins began to show so Rue slowed the flow of mana to her eyes before ceasing entirely.

Why? because the system said to do so, seemed to work well and something told her it would injure the eyes to fully stop so abruptly.

Rubbing her eyes Rue began to think and plan.

if she were to fight there wasn't enough room to dodge, instead Using the creature's onset sleep, Rue would make a new tool.

Quietly... Very Quietly.

But first, she had to wait, her eyes still hurt.

After her eyes stopped hurting, Rue began to retrieve the parts that would best support the item she wanted to make.

In her mind the formulas and scripts necessary to create the barrier charm that she was assembling.

'Copper wire inlays, good conductivity... Iron, no, Steel body, difficult to work with, exceptional resilience to overflow, poor conductivity, copper for that... Hrm gauntlet? no... full arm armour, enough space... hum...eh...meh' And so the internal monologue went on and on.

Eventually a rod of steel with an acceptable margin of thickness was whittled down by arcane energies until a hardened tip was left to attempt the carving process.

at first slow, keep steady pressure.

snnnnnkt The chisel... Slipped.

'Hrm, too sharp'

Rue began to slowly twist the tip against another, spare plate.

'ok, again, keep steady pressure, sloooowly.

krrrrek krrrrrrreck krrrrrre-snnnnkt

'Fell off again, but still sharp enough, I will continue' Rue thought to herself unnoticed and unaware of the growing indicator the system was holding back.

Rue hadn't a single clue how long had passed, The wall creature hasn't moved since it arrived.

I have gone through all the emergency sump-cat jerky.

The Full arm armour was essentially complete.

Taking another break while her eyes stopped stinging, Rue heard a noise.

"urrrrrrrrg"

The voice called out in the dark, slow, sloppy and deep.

But full of vitality.

"wherrrrrrrr?.. whaaaa?"

It called out again, Rue's heart began pumping in her chest harder, she used the analysis ability from the system, on her own for the first time on another creature.

Name: Akyas

Age: 98

Race: Ogrilla

Gender: Male(prime)

Class: thinker

Health: 500/500

Mana: 1/1 .9

Statistics;

Strength: 40(50)

Dexterity: 30(48)

Constitution: 100

Resilience: 120

Wisdom: 15(20)

Intelligence: 12(14)

Charisma: 0(10)

Perception: 1(45)

Passive skills:

Monstrous vitality: level 10

Monster's might: level 5

Physical damage resistance: level 1

Hunger & thirst resistance: level 4

Poison resistance: level 5

Rotten food tolerance: level 3

Rapid regeneration: Level 9

Pain resistance: level 3

Active skills:

Haggling: level 6

Appraisal: level 3

Unarmed fighting technique: level 5

Armoured fighting skill: level 3

Cooking skill: level 1

Club technique skill: level 2

Intimidation: level 4

Status effects:

Curse of Blindness

Cursed outcomes

Toxin immunity 99% (sump environment)

Malnutrition: intermediate

Unique skills:

Species paragon of wit

'OH no he has recovered from the ambient poisons, I guess? I'm not done yet!'

"WHERE...WHERE AM I?" the voice which was groggy a moment earlier began to speak at what seemed it's normal volume.

'AH, no no no no, I need a bit more time to assemble, what to do? uhhhhhhh'

'What to do, assemble it while he is still blind? maybe, though it would take him being blind, deaf and completely insensitive to everything.'

Rue attempted to inspect his skills only to get-

This is not your skill, your knowledge of it is limited to the name.

'Inspect perception!'

This attribute dictates the User's ability to perceive anything using their senses.

Note it doesn't dictate whether one can or cannot perceive something It only displays the focus of said senses.

a person with 1 perception wouldn't be as keen as someone with 10 perception.

Example: the former wouldn't be able to hear a coin drop from across a room whilst the latter could both could identify that a person across a room was doing something and if they had the focus, they could both tell that he was dropping a coin, the latter would get this far quicker and easier however, relying on less senses to guarantee information.

'Shit now that he is awake, assuming that he talks like I do, he would be able to hear me working in here!'

'Ok what about talking to him? Would he be fine with talking to me? would he just attack?

Maybe I should talk to him, to distract from the scraping of the armour being assembled?'

Not seeing another option, Rue opened her mouth to begin the first conversation she had made for a long time.