《How The Weak Live》18. How Things Work Around Here
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Lucious rested his back against the wall, biting into what felt like plywood. After the grinding of teeth, however, Lucious admitted that it was, after all, just another piece of bread.
It’s been a few days since the First Phase had begun, and it had only been getting worse outside.
With the end of the Ghoul’s onslaught began the human’s own genocides. The political rivals, of whom Lucious knew little of, had taken full advantage of the God’s meddling in human affairs, and had somehow incited a riot.
Wisely, Lucious had given that storm wide breath. He had found himself a vacant room in an obscure part of the town and holed himself in it.
Unfortunately, his supplies were dwindling by the bite.
With annoyance, Lucious studies his Status Screen one last time.
Oddly enough, he’d grown fond of the thing. Staying in a small room as chaos ensued outside allowed little else to weigh on Lucious’s mind.
Most of it was guesswork, but Lucious had to begin with something, and something this was.
The Blue Screens was a communication, of a sort. It was one of the many Gods ways to grant boons, and to communicate these boons, without actually doing so on their own time.
There was one central issue regarding this discourse, though; no God was capable of such a feat. Not even the Death Lord or the Earth Mother could establish such a widespread influence directly.
They could bring destruction upon this world, yes, but even if every other mischievous God allowed that to happen, it would still not be done directly.
Molding the mortal realm took more than that, Lucious had learned. It was evident throughout history, in their symbols, and in their champions.
What's the point of subtlety and deception, if not it’s a necessity?
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Thus Lucious assumed the worst has occurred, something that occurs every so century; the Gods had actually aligned themselves behind a singular goal.
That was freighting. The only thing which stopped the Gods from obliterating life from this planet, was the presence of other Gods, of which they desired to obliterate this planet.
...Or so history foretold.
Regardless of speculation though, one that was clear. A few things actually: Lucious had become stronger, and Lucious could become even stronger.
Such thoughts, however, brought great discomfort to Lucious, for becoming stronger was not the same as surviving.
And Lucious wanted to survive.
There will always be someone stronger than him.
His granted powers agreed with him. His Paths, which Lucious assumed originated from his actions, were all sad and lowly. War Child? Omniscient Deserter? Knife And Fork?!
They were the Paths of the tortured, of the abused and the meek, and that last one was just plain humiliating. “Fear the mighty fork of doom!” the flavor text had said. Whichever God was in charge of creating this System, he had a grim source of humor.
Fits me perfectly, Lucious nodded to himself. The question, however, was what to spend his 20 A points, and 39 B points. A stood for achievement, B stood for Battle. Both were self-explanatory, and it seemed that this was the only way in which Lucious could alter his growth.
The only Path which held promise, was The Unkillable. In addition to the impressive title, It had an ® next to it, which Lucious presumed it stood for Rare. How he had come to that conclusion, Lucious did not know.
He was missing 5 A points, however, and was not sure whether increasing his current chances of survival would be a smarter choice than saving it for the future.
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But then again, there was no point in saving anything when you're dead, so at last, he’d inputted 5 A points, and 10 B points into War Child. It was of a common rarity, but it should be a good test.
Perk Gained: Born For War ©
Just how cringy will you become? Have the Gods no imagination in shaping you?
10% Increase In Effectiveness and Growth of War Skills.
Not bad, ignoring the flavor text. Though what qualified as War Skills? In a way, Lucious could argue that looking the most handsome person on the field will induce rage in his enemies, and thus cloud their minds with sadistic thoughts towards his irresistibly cute face.
Far stretched? Yes, but the point remained.
As an opposite entity of a law-bidding fool, Lucious could see many loop-holes and blank spots he could take advantage of, yet strangely, Lucious didn’t seem too eager to try and cheat the Gods.
Having gained a perk, Lucious realized the answer to an odd observation he'd had before. The math does not add up. He should have more than 20 A points, at the very least, yet it halted on 20.
Gaining a Perk from a Path had somewhat explained that. During the course of that long-winded battles, he’d gained points for nearly every Kill, their amount depending on the opponent and style. The greater the risks, the greater the rewards-- probably. It fit how the Gods operated.
As diabolical as they were, there was logic and a hint of fairness in their devastation.
It seemed that in some occurrences, instead of points, Lucious received a perk. Or, after he gained points, they were combined at some point to create a Perk, or in the case of The Undying and Knife And Fork, the advancement of it.
Lucious had plenty of theories to discuss within the comforts of his narrow mind, but for now, he had closed his Status Screen. Quickly throwing a couple layers upon his body, Lucious exited the room, the coolness of his steel knifes rubbing inside a newly acquired jacket. He was glad to get rid of that embarrassing thing. He hid it in the room, for future transactions.
He checked his HP one last time, its bar hovering at 98 out of a 143. What amazing progress.
Lucious paused in his tracks. How did he know what his HP was, if he did not even pull out his Status Screen?
A shiver went down his spine. Was he becoming less human?
Memories of his parents reminded him the consequences of that.
Shaking his head, Lucious exited the room.
The smell of rot slapped him in the face. Nearly gagging, he stepped over the bodies. The flies already begin to feast on their flesh.
Lucious shrugged. That was the price of leaving them there as the warning for the next foolish lad who would attempt to force his way in.
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The universe is at war. Terrans (human invaders) have ravaged most of the universe in their continuous pursuit of growth and dominance. the other races have united, however the Orilion Union has suffered defeat after defeat. A small band of desperate people discover a useless hunk of metal. What is this Star Forge? Is it their last hope?
8 120Day of Doom
A guy wakes up in the morning. That, alone, is a traumatic experience by itself. But then the sun goes out. The guy figures that it's just some freak solar eclipse or something like that. After all, he isn't exactly a scientist. But, no; The same thing happens again the next morning. And the next. The guy must now figure out what's going on. This is my 2nd fiction, written for the [Royal Road Community Magazine] Contest, with the first being something I'd rather not show you. When I started this one(a couple hours before I wrote this synopsis), I had a fair idea of what I was doing, kind of. Cover by MRMerrigan.
8 92The Forgotten Universe
In a world of where there are supposedly 10 parallel universes, Only nine remain known. The Capital universe is trying to both find this tenth universe to exploit it, and trying to rid the universes of "rebels". One such "rebel" is Drin, a Drowen, - subspecie of the Drow elves - formerly feared as the strongest knight within the Universal Realms (this whole world). Now, as a fugitive, he too, along with his friends and allies (all of whom are also extremely strong), look for the tenth universe. not to exploit it, but to save it. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Although this series doesn't use the work of other creators, it has plenty of references and homages - both obvious ones and more obscure ones that require you to know the series being referenced. Hope you can find all of them. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ And most importantly, I hope that you enjoy this story and that it brightens your day - even a bit.
8 92LUNA: WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?
What happened last night? How unlucky she was to wake with a spear on her neck? And what language are they talking about? Did she just witness a wizard in a nightgown enchanting the shrubs? But that's not the important thing right now. What she really wanted to know is, what happened last night? So Luna embarked on a magical adventure to find out what misfortune had fallen upon her that she had to fight skeletons, monsters, dragons, and villains to stay alive. Was her destiny much bigger than an accidental summoning? Perhaps, she was chosen by gods to save the continence, or perhaps, she will deny her fate and have a cup of tea with the dragon instead? "With this Blade of Fate, I will decide my own destiny", she whispered to the man pinned on the wall, her sword against his neck. Disclaimer : I do not own anyrright to the photo. Kindly PM me if you want me to remove the picture. Taken from Pinterest, Fantasy Art by Z. W. GU
8 97Meeting myself
Canceled (This was my first attempt at a story and while I really enjoyed it, I lost track of the thread of the story. The MC was too op, and except for some fun slice of life moments it just wasn't a very good plot. Anyway, I may come back and re-write this in the future because I really enjoyed the premise, but for now don't expect updates.)I've never met Karma; or at least I think I haven't. Hope, really, because I'm pretty sure she hates me. You see, the thing is, I've always hated flying. When you don't wind up getting molested (cavity searched), then your bags get lost, or you spend the entire flight sitting next to a crying baby. This flight was even worse than any of those things. You see, this flight killed me. I won't spoil it, but lets just say, Karma owes me a few explanations. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, deserves to die like that. Of course, that wasn't the end of my adventure, far from it. But, you'll just have to read the story to learn about that.(This is a mature fiction, so far their hasn't been anything overtly bad (some minor sexual innuendo and drug use), but their will be plenty of blood, gore, sex, all that good stuff... eventually)
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The universe is a big mysterious place, it is full of countless worlds and endless possibilities. One such possibility could be that the most powerful god who sits on the throne of all and rules over the entire universe is dying. Another possibility could be that this same god needed to bequeath his immense powers and rule to another, one he decided would be chosen by means of a rather unique sort of competition. Yet Another possibility could be that this mighty dying god had two worlds that he was particularly fond of and decided to use them to field this grand competition of Deia for his throne and all that comes with it.Follow the journeys of those chosen humans of earth who were either lucky or unlucky enough to be picked by the Deia , sent to the fantastical world of Gaia with the simple goal of assuring that their patron is the one who has the greatest control and influence over the world. They have only 1000 years to accomplish this goal before the competition ends, and countless ways to see it done. But then again things are never so simple in matters of the Deia...Updates randomly (there are multiple authors so don't expect a set schedule) [Caution this fiction is mature and contains content that may not agree with all audiences such as: torture, gore, violence, sexual content, and other mature stuff. you have been warned, read at your own risk.]Written as a joint-project by AaronDragon, Hveðrungr, Zanderkoala, DarkSun, Mech, and Theloli. Author list subject to change.
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